Short Change Hero
by 0atis
Summary: AU- Santana is a cop who falls for a mysterious blonde. It should be a simple romance but it becomes far more complicated, to the point where she has to decide whether she is willing to sacrifice everything to save the soul of the woman she loves.
1. Chapter 1

**Short Change Hero**

By Oatis

Chapter 1

Santana Lopez sat uncomfortably on the overstuffed cushion in Dr. Emma Pillsbury's office for her monthly evaluation. The older, redheaded woman was the psychiatrist for the NYPD and on Santana's list for least favorite person in the world, right under her partner. It wasn't that Emma was a bad person, but her job required her to force Santana to do the thing she hated more than anything in the world, which was to open up. In reality she never told her everything she was thinking, what kind of idiot would? She knew she was sane and on top of that any serious deep rooted issues she had couldn't be solved by a woman who couldn't stand to listen to the more graphic details of what they had to deal with on the streets.

"So Officer Lopez how have you been?" she asked in her kind placating manner.

"The same since the last time we talked last month," Santana sighed.

"I don't know," she looked over a piece of paper that sat squarely in the middle of her immaculate desk, "it says here that you received a new partner after Matt transferred away, that's new."

Santana winced, "Can we please not talk about her?"

"We both know these are the kinds of things you are here for. Now tell me, what kind of problems are you having with Rachel?"

"Where to start? She is a rookie who is full of bullshit ideals and never listens to anyone else. She knows the police handbook by heart. Combine that with an inability to shut the fuck up, and you have a person that is flat out intolerable."

"She has the highest marks out of all the cadets that graduated from the academy, and you did quite well yourself, so you should have that in common."

Santana stared perplexedly at the woman, she just didn't get it, "Whatever. I will try to get along with the imp," she lied.

"Good!" Emma exclaimed not reading the insincerity in her voice, "Now I know how much you hate it when I bring this up, but how is your love life."

She clenched her jaw so as not to curse, "I get laid every now and then, but no serious relationships. The same as the last fucking time you asked me pervert."

Emma flustered at this, but she didn't let it deter her, "Last month you said there was someone you were interested in."

"Yes, interested in sleeping with."

"R-right and did you consider pursuing a long term relationship with this person?"

"No, and a good thing too because she was a lousy lay."

Emma seemed embarrassed by her own topic, "Looking over your performance evaluation I see that you have been doing well despite your issues with Rachel, and ignoring the unnecessary derisive comments from the Lieutenant, have been quite an active member of the force as well. The only worry I really have is that your social life is suffering."

"You did hear me say I get laid right?"

"Yes I did, what I don't hear is you mentioning a relationship that lasts past a one night stand."

"That's perfectly normal, especially here! Puckerman has a different woman every other day!"

"We aren't here to talk about him, we are here to talk about you."

"I don't get it, my performance is top notch and I am cuffing more crooks than the average cop, but you want me to… what? Stop and cultivate a relationship with someone? Why? They all end in failure. You want me to stop with the exemplary job performance and chase romance?"

Emma was scrawling notes on her clipboard, "Why do you think that perusing a relationship will lower your performance?"

"Because I have had relationships before and they take time and energy I am currently giving to this job."

"I see. That's fine, but consider this; this is just a job. At the end of the day, no at the end of your life, do you really want to look back on this and nothing else."

She scoffed, "No, but not to worry I'll have plenty of sex to keep me occupied when reviewing the more boring segments of my life."

The psychiatrist nodded, "If you are comfortable I certainly won't mock your choice, but until our next session really think that over," she had clearly dismissed Santana's flippant response.

"I'm free to go then?" she asked already getting up.

Emma nodded and found herself alone in her office almost instantly.

Santana burst out off the office doors feeling like a kid in school after the final bell, she had just been released from the one task she had been dreading for weeks, it was the end of her shift and she had the next two days off. Her mood didn't even totally sour when two more people on her least favorite persons list showed up; Sergeant Quinn Fabray and Lieutenant Sue Sylvester. Sue was a pain in the ass in the most severe way, but it was really Quinn's approach that bothered her, Santana couldn't stand her.

"Officer Lopez you are just leaving your Psych Eval?" Sue asked loudly from clear across the room.

Several heads turned to stare at her and she tried not to snap at the woman, she wouldn't let Sue break her mood, "Yes," she replied at a more reasonable volume.

Finally the woman crossed the length of the busy precinct to stand next to the person she was talking to, of course tailed by Quinn, "What?" she asked leaning well beyond the boundaries of Santana's personal bubble.

"Yes ma'am I finished my evaluation," Santana repeated through gritted teeth.

"Excellent, hope to see a good report, you are one of the best, need you out there keeping our numbers up. Though Emma advising anyone is a blind leading the blind scenario of catastrophic proportions."

"Don't tell me you came to work like that?" Quinn asked looking over Santana's civilian clothes with disdain.

"No, I changed before I went to Dr. Pillsbury," she said trying her damnedest not to lose the feeling of elation she'd had moments before.

"Next time please be in full uniform until the end of the work day."

"Got it," she said, when Quinn glared daggers she corrected, "Yes ma'am."

"Your questionable dressing habits aside, I wanted to make you aware that there is a case that Quinn and I have been working for a while. It's not terribly important, but our sources say that it may be soon, so come Monday morning be ready for an assignment. If you see Rachel let her know," Sue said and abruptly turned away. Quinn lingered long enough to shoot Santana a hateful look and followed.

After they were out of sight she was ironically thinking happily about being home free when Rachel Berry spotted her trying to make it to the door.

"Santana!" she called in her shrill voice.

She tried to pretend she didn't hear anything, but the other woman was fast enough to cut her off before she could reach the door.

"What Berry?" she snapped hopping that a fierce enough response would make her go away.

It did make her cringe a little, it didn't stop her from pressing on, "Hey, look I know you haven't really warmed up to me, but I was thinking, we should fix that."

"No, really we're fine the way we are," she said trying to sidestep the woman and finding her just as irritatingly in the way as she followed her movement.

"I know you and some of the others go out after work, and I know it's rather forward of me, but I was thinking maybe I could come along," a hopeful smile punctuated the end of her sentence.

Santana considered telling her all the reasons she would not want to go out with her and the other guys, but in a somewhat malicious moment, decided to grant the obnoxious little brat her wish.

"Sure," she said simply.

Her smile bloomed into a silly grin while Santana began to bet silently how long it would take for it to melt off.

Her longtime friend and fellow officer Puck appeared behind her, announcing his arrival with an inappropriate slap to her butt.

"Lopez, you sane enough to party tonight?"

"Puckerman, you rich enough to buy drinks after the sexual harassment suits?"

He laughed, "You know I have a special hidden reserve. Finn dropped out so it's going to just be me, you, Sam and Mike."

"Perfect I can take the missing man's spot," Rachel piped.

Puck seemed to notice Rachel for the first time, he gave her a disbelieving look before he turned questioningly to Santana, she cut him off before he could say anything.

"Berry asked to join us, she wants to get to know us by tagging along," she said pointedly.

"She'll get to know us alright," he said quietly.

* * *

><p>Rachel Berry was as close to a perfectionist as anyone without clinical OCD could get. She had gone out of her way to learn all she could about her co-workers, most especially her partner, the moment she knew she was going to be assigned to the 6th precinct. She knew all about Noah Puckerman, who had more pending lawsuits against him than any other officer on the force, for everything from harassment to reckless endangerment. Nothing ever stuck on him if it ever did make it to court, so it made him a bit of a wild card, and it took only slight inquiries around the city to discover he was a notorious playboy.<p>

Sam Evans worked in forensics and was stereotypically a nerd and a bit of a shut in, but despite it all he was quite popular amongst the female, and a couple of male, members of the staff due to his incredibly non-stereotypical looks. He had a clean record as far as complaints went and his work was top notch. He was one Rachel had mentally tagged as potential date material.

Finn Hudson was a fellow officer and work-a-holic he was known for late nights and tough collars, hence why he hadn't joined them, she assumed. He had been married once and was now divorced though she hadn't been able to work out why or to whom. Overall he was a nice guy and she would have put him on her potentials list, but the mysterious divorce held her back.

Mike Chang was pretty cut and dry since he had only joined several weeks before she had, but had apparently gained the favor of everyone she spoke to about him. Even the Lieutenant had nothing much to say about him except some offhand racist comments about how he would serve them better in the lab due to his race's superior technological skills.

Santana Lopez was by far the most enigmatic, she had a record that was pure black and white, as in half of it was really bad and half was really good. She had been written up on several occasions for insubordination against her Sergeant, one altercation actually ending in blows. There was even a report that she had intentionally released a contagious virus from its container in the lab, the only reason she wasn't fired for that incident was because of lack of evidence. On the other hand she had graduated top of her class from the academy, (though her marks weren't as good as Rachel's) and not only took on every major bust she could get her hands on, but managed to nullify the task with expert ease. She had countless awards and decorations for service to the city of New York. Yet everyone she asked told her Santana was moody, unreliable for anything other than work, and overall a bit of a bitch. There was even talk of her being involved in Finn's divorce.

All this information she had collected diligently and never trusted anything that didn't come from multiple sources. She had checked and double checked these facts against the testimonies of her fellow officers and members of the staff in general. So why, after all her research and all her questioning had no one mentioned the very important fact that this particular group of people regularly visited a gentleman's club called Femme?

When they had come to the building Rachel hadn't suspected what she was in store for until the last minute. The gaudy yet respectably designed building looked like an art gallery from the outside, as it was decorated with many Greek-esque statues all nude, but tastefully so. It's true purpose was further hidden by the fact that the building was nestled neatly between NoriTech South, a technological research building, and Grand Bank. Though given what type of establishment this was, she supposed that made sense. A bunch of science nerds got off work, dashed to the bank, and then here. She would have expected more from her fellow officers, however.

She sat next to Santana at the bar, clearly uncomfortable, as she barely chanced a glance around for fear of seeing another topless waitress prance by. Honestly she would have preferred to hide by Sam, but he was with the other guys sitting by the stage where a girl was now undressing to a Straight To Video remix.

"I don't get it. Why do you come here?" she shouted over the music to Santana who was drinking some unidentifiable amber liquid.

The dark haired woman looked at her with a raised eyebrow and chuckled slightly, "I'll give you two guesses," she said barely audible over the music.

"You like to hang out with the guys?"

Santana continued to give her a blank stare as she took another sip of her drink.

"I don't..."

One of the waitresses walked up to them at that moment and Rachel almost broke her neck averting her gaze. The woman was Indian, very pretty and well endowed, so ignoring her was harder that she had hoped.

She set another drink in front of Santana with a wink, "On me," she said and walked away.

Rachel's face drained in understanding, how in the hell had she missed that fact?

"Wanna take your second guess now?" Santana asked with a smile.

"Oh, I see," she gulped.

"Problem?"

"No. No problem, it's just… I never thought…"

She laughed and waved a hand, "Whatever Berry."

"No, really I mean it's fine, but… you know I'm not gay right?"

Santana almost choked, her Jack Daniels burned in all the wrong ways as it slid down the wrong pipe, "Are you fucking kidding me? This is not some sorry attempt to date you, you aren't even my type!" she choked.

"Oh," she let out a sigh of relief, "Because I really didn't need someone with an attraction to me as my partner! Makes for a difficult working relationship!"

"So does your big mouth and irritating attitude."

"What?" she shouted straining to hear.

"Santana!" Puck exclaimed as he dashed to her side at the bar, "You gotta check this chick out!"

She turned to the stage and from where she was, all she could really tell was that the person dancing on stage was tall and blonde, she turned back around, "Not interested in blondes." She said mechanically. This had become an iron clad truth the moment she first met Sue, it had become law by the time she met Quinn.

"No seriously you have got to see this."

It wasn't like Puck to get this worked up about random women, so she had to assume whatever was happening on stage was something special. Much to Rachel's dismay, she stood and allowed Puck to guide her through the ever thickening crowd to the table by the stage where he and the others were sitting. Every one of them had their eyes glued to the dancer and when Santana looked up she understood why. The woman wasn't just gorgeous she was a great… no an incredible dancer. Good enough to make anyone wonder why in the hell she would bother with a topless bar, she was clearly so much more talented than was needed to work here.

Santana wanted to go sit at the table but she couldn't move, she was mesmerized. The woman's golden hair flowed around her hypnotically only occasionally parting to reveal sharp, blue eyes. She was tall, lithe, incredibly flexible and putting all of these attributes to good use as she moved her body to some strange trance music, which in Santana's opinion was an odd choice for a strip song, however she was making it work and then some.

The music slowed and sped up and as it progressed she lost more and more clothing. She seemed to like her stripping wardrobe how she liked her music; odd. And like her music she made it work. When Santana had arrived she was wearing a jacket, over a long sleeve shirt, over a short sleeve shirt, over a wife beater, over a bra with jeans, over boxers, over briefs, over panties. A pile of clothes already on the stage suggested her starting outfit had been even more absurd, but not a soul complained as the music pumped on and she removed layer after layer until she was down to her underwear.

In any other situation, Puck would have teased her endlessly over the fact that her mouth was hanging open and that she was practically drooling in anticipation as the final part of the song slammed out of the speakers, but he was just as captivated.

Then as the moment of truth came, the lights went out and the room was plunged into pitch black.

Screams of frustration rose from the gathered crowd and then began the blind scramble for the exits. Santana supposed there would have been more excitement and looting if this wasn't such a popular cop hangout. After a long moment, the emergency lights came on and she found herself scanning the stage hopefully, but the woman had gone.

"Well that's a shitty end to a great evening," she muttered.

Suddenly Santana found her arm being gripped tightly by a small person who was trembling in fright, through the soft shine of the emergency lights she could see it was Rachel.

"Someone grabbed my breasts!" she shrieked.

"Don't worry they probably thought they were doorknobs."

She snatched herself away offended, "I will have you know my bosom are much bigger than a doorknob. What kind of lesbian are you if you can't even tell that?"

Santana was a second away from turning and leaving the brunette to find her way out on her own, but Sam and Mike appeared looking disappointed.

"A damn shame that had to end," Sam said nodding towards the stage, "What the hell happened?"

She shrugged, "Blackout."

"Think we should go?" Mike asked, ogling the few waitresses that were still around.

"If the power is out for the block, we aren't getting far without a cop car but I think we should get out of here for the time being. Where is Puck?"

Sam gave her a knowing look, "He, uh, went to comfort one of the waitresses."

"That has to be some sort of record," Mike snorted.

"Well he won't be back for a good minute. Let's go," she said turning Rachel around and using her like a battering ram as they cut a path out the door. Up ahead she could hear the shorter woman's protests mixed in with her hasty apologies to those she displaced, all were ignored.

Once outside the group found that the power was out for the entire block, though the street lights still worked which was odd and also fortunate. She waved goodbye to her friends, marched past Rachel and headed straight for her car, only to find her partner tailing her.

"What do you want a kiss goodnight?" she snapped, turning on her heels to face the woman.

For the billionth time since they arrived at the club, she looked flustered, "No! It's just… Sam gave me a ride here remember?"

"Right. Ask Sam to drive you back."

"I would have, but he drives a high emission van and I can't do that to the environment."

"I drive a '67 Dodge Charger, so the planet is pretty fucked either way."

She looked desperately over her shoulder in time to see Sam pulling off onto the road, then looked back at Santana who was frowning.

"Fine," she said, "If you can handle me killing the ozone, I'll drive you to your car."

"Thank you," she said faintly.

The ride back to the station was short and the Latina hoped desperately that her partner would somehow find peace in silence and not break it. It would have been more realistic to expect the Lieutenant to come to work in a tutu singing tunes from The Sound of Music.

"So does everyone else know about your… nightly exploits?"

"You mean to Femme? Are you kidding, it's where half the force goes, the only people who don't are either married or not into women."

"Really because there were only you few in there tonight," she said judgmentally.

"Where was it that you used to work, where everyone went to the same place at the same time? Just because we like the bar doesn't mean we all go together."

"Does the Lieutenant go?"

"Don't know and will never care, the question is; why do you?"

"I just think it is a little… tacky, for lack of a better word, that the officers in charge of this city's safety spend their evenings in a strip club."

Santana laughed hard at that, "Okay first it isn't a strip club it's a topless bar and yes there are huge differences," she interjected the last part upon seeing Rachel's face contort in protest, "Second you are wicked naive if you think, even for a moment, that holding yourself to a personal standard that makes you feel superior to everyone else will get you anywhere. No one cares what you do in your spare time as long as it's legal, hell even if it isn't keep it off the radar and everything's cool."

"How can you be so glib about it? Those women are exploited in there and you-"

"Those women get a good chunk of my paycheck for showing me tits that may or may not be as magnificent as the ones I already own so quite frankly I think I am being exploited."

There was a brief moment of silence before Rachel spoke again, the sound of her voice made Santana want to kick her out the window.

"Don't you have a girlfriend or something? What does she think?"

"No I don't, and if I did it would be none of your business Berry, now shut up!"

Again a small silence followed by talking, "I used to have a boyfriend before I joined the force." She said sadly.

Santana would have dug into her about bothering to talk about such trivial information but as long as Rachel was off the topic of her personal behavior, she figured it was best to count her blessings.

"Oh yeah?" she sighed resigned to the fact that she was not going to be quiet.

"Yeah. He was great at first, we shared all of the same interests and we went to peace rallies together and went to all sorts of anti-violence campaigns. I thought it would be great to make a change from the inside you know? So I became a cop, but he saw it as a sell-out. We didn't break up right away, as a matter of fact we didn't ever officially break up at all we just… drifted apart. One day I came home and he had just moved out. I can't say I was surprised but boy did it hurt."

Why, oh why was the light still red?, "Why are you sharing this?"

"Like I said I think we should get to know each other," she said a little sadly.

Santana let her forehead flop on the steering wheel. What had she done to deserve this? She had just gotten out of her evaluation and here sat a take home version that wanted to follow her and share feelings. She cast a suspicious sideways glance towards Rachel. Was this no accident? Had Dr. Pillsbury had a hand in this? It not only seemed possible it seemed likely.

"Look I'm not a sharing kind of person okay? I don't need to know your personal history and you don't need to know mine, it's just not necessary."

"It's fine if you don't want to share," the small woman seemed to be getting more depressed with every word, "I just wanted to talk to you. I know I'm no one's favorite person and I am great with putting my foot in my mouth, so thanks for taking me out anyway."

The somewhat flat tone of her voice prompted Santana to show a little compassion even though it felt like she was letting the terrorists win, "I've had a few long term relationships, but they all ended with one or both of us being sick of it. They are a waste of time and resources and I don't see the point when all anyone is trying to do is to achieve physical satisfaction."

"That's not true! When I was with Jesse, he was more than my lover he was my confidant, the person I could share everything with. There is nothing like having someone like that to come home to."

"And there is nothing like finding that person gone."

Rachel looked hurt and Santana regretted saying that a little, but she had to understand how ridiculous she was being.

"I don't regret it, being with him."

"That's good," she said eager for a change of topic.

Rachel smiled over at her, "I think one day you will find someone that will change your whole outlook because that is what love is."

"God I hope not," she grumbled.

Much to Santana's relief, she finally pulled into the parking lot and Rachel pointed out her car, a Prius. Go figure.

With a small smile, Rachel moved to exit the car, "Thanks for the ride, and for talking," she said.

"Uh-huh. Oh, Sue was rambling about an assignment on Monday so be ready."

A genuine smile blossomed, "I am always ready."

The door shut and Santana drove off feeling irritated that the dwarf had succeeded in her bonding mission, even though Santana had tried to make it as undoable as possible. She could see where the annoying loudmouthed new girl just really wanted to make friends, at the very least with the person she had been assigned to spend so much time with. It didn't make her want to be around her more than she already had to be, but she did understand the woman a little better.

* * *

><p>The only thing worse than being in trouble was being in trouble and not having the slightest clue why.<p>

It was Monday morning and Puck, Mike, Sam, Rachel and Santana sat in Lieutenant Sylvester's office waiting for her to arrive, none of them had any idea what for. They had been called in extraordinarily early by a smug sounding Quinn. Santana knew that couldn't ever be good.

They were all a little nervous even though they were all quite sure they hadn't done anything wrong. Everyone had kept the drinking to a minimum and started no fights, so why had they been called in? It had to have been related to their late night excursion on Friday since there was no reason for them all to be gathered together in one place. Aside from Rachel and Santana, none of them worked the same streets. In Sam's case he didn't work the streets at all.

The knowledge that they hadn't done anything obviously terrible kept everyone calm, everyone but Rachel.

"She's probably mad we were at a strip club instead of at the range," the nervous brunette mumbled.

"It wasn't a strip club," Puck retorted, "I wish it was, but Sam and Santana find them too tacky."

"Shady is more the word. Women of questionable mental resolve," Santana corrected, "At least at the one's near here." Sam nodded his agreement.

Rachel stared at them in disbelief, "Are you crazy! She was going to put us on a special assignment and she told us to get ready and instead I followed you idiots to your den of depravity."

The needle thin thread Santana's Rachel tolerance was based on, snapped and she was about to say some truly horrible things when the door burst open and in walked Quinn followed by Sue. Both women looking like they had come back from a journey of true enlightenment and were now here to share with the masses.

Sue walked casually behind her desk and sat there like it was the throne of the planet Earth. Quinn leaned against the corner of her desk looking down at all of them with what could only be categorized as intense dislike.

"So you five were at Femme on Friday?" Sue asked unnecessarily.

No one knew who was supposed to answer for the group so Rachel was the only one to immediately say, "Yes!" she exclaimed, then realizing that not only had she been the only one to answer, she had done so enthusiastically. "I mean I went but only as a bonding experience with my fellow co-workers, one that wasn't all that effective since they were drooling over half dressed women wandering all over. Had I known it was a strip club-"

"It's not a strip club," everyone corrected in unison, all except Sue of course.

Santana was a bit surprised to have caught that Quinn had chimed in as well.

"In any case," the Lieutenant said lazily, "I am correct in assuming you were all there?" Nods came from her reluctant subordinates. "You were also present during the blackout then?" More nods.

Sue handed a file to Quinn, who took it and began to look over the contents, "According to NoriTech South, which, as I am sure you all know, is right next door to Femme. Right before the blackout a massive amount of confidential data was stolen. The thieves penetrated NoriTech's extraordinary defense system, admittedly a force greatly weakened by the blackout, by way of a tunnel straight to Femme. Meaning they could have been in the bar with you."

The group was silent, not one of them had a response to this.

"Thing is, Q and I have been sort of working with the CIA on this case. This group was a huge problem in Washington and after a heist gone bad, it was believed they moved their base of operations here. We were asked to keep a look out and this is the very thing we are supposed to be looking out for. The bad news is, they got away with some crazy high tech stuff that does something awful that I was too bored to listen to. Q tell 'em."

"It's an algorithm based program that allows hacking into literally any computer system bypassing any and all security, this includes the infinite levels of encryption on White House files. Needless to say this also includes records in the NYPD and isn't just limited to access, this thing provides total control. They can add to files, erase criminal history or make up an identity on the fly. This program is bad news walking."

Rachel raised her hand like a middle schooler who had to pee, Quinn smiled in a placating manner and pointed to the eager woman.

"If you have been communicating with the CIA, shouldn't they take over? I mean this sounds way out of our league."

Sue looked suddenly attentive, "Out of your league? Did I just hear that from Rachel Berry, who begged me for a spot on my force with the mantra of, and I quote, 'There is no assignment I can't do?'"

She blanched a little, "I meant to say why is the NYPD involved at all? They got the goods so what can we do?"

Sue leaned back in her chair, "In regards to that, I did forget to tell you the good news. In order to actually use this program, there are two other complimentary ones they would need to steal. One they failed to get on their last heist and the other is at NoriTech North, the sister building in St. Lawrence. Both buildings will be holding benefits and you will be there."

Rachel's hand was in the air again, "But Lieutenant isn't this a job for the CIA…"

"I'm gonna stop you right there. Why raise your hand like an infant if you aren't going to wait for me to pick you? That sort of thing sort of pisses me off, if you are going to interrupt me anyway you may as well just do it, don't put your hand in the air and make me think that there is a chance for me to avoid hearing the sound of your voice." Both Puck and Santana had to hide a snicker, Rachel just sank into her chair, "But to answer your ridiculous question, several reasons. The main two being the fact that one of you may have seen one if not all of the thieves at some point. That is an invaluable asset since the bar's cameras were hacked. That said, the CIA will be officially handing this, you will just be there to point out anyone familiar. The second reason is, after seeing the absurd number of Swedish agents, I pulled a few strings to have New York's finest on the job."

Puck looked around to see if anyone else was as miffed as he was, "Are you serious?"

"As a heart attack, I don't trust the Swiss and if you do, you are a bigger idiot than I know you are."

Quinn set the file back on the desk and spoke in her slow deliberate voice that Santana hated because it always made it sound like she was talking to toddlers, "Today's assignment was originally going to be basic guard duty since there was no evidence that this group was here. Now that we know they are, it's a big deal. Both North and South buildings are holding benefits one month apart, their security is on a level where this event will be the only time an outsider could slip in. The first one will take place tonight at eight. You will arrive at NoriTech South's benefit in plain clothes without weapons, you will mingle in with the crowd and see what you can see. Do not, I repeat do NOT engage with any suspects, radio me and I will relay it to the operations director. And do me a favor, make sure you really truly and honestly have the right person before you call me."

Mike spoke up tentatively, "It's a men's club next to a geek factory, I would be more surprised if there weren't any familiar faces."

"Correct," Quinn said sharply, "but all NoriTech staff have been thoroughly investigated so rule them out, we are looking for guests. Everyone at this party should either work there or be from out of town your options will be limited. I doubt we get anything from this, but if you help crack this case it would be a huge career booster."

Rachel seemed quite pleased at that, Santana rolled her eyes.

"So our only responsibility tonight is to mingle at a party and look out for club goers?" Sam asked.

Quinn's eyes snapped to him, "No, your job is to pretend to mingle to help the Central Intelligence Agency locate, what is two programs away from being, the most powerful terrorist organization on Earth."

"Drama queen," Puck muttered, Sam sniggered.

Santana yawned, "And for this we had to get up and come here at 5 am?"

Again the Lieutenant seemed to be drifting off, but jumped right back in the conversation at that question, "You have to go and join our resident men in black. Even though you won't be a part of their mission, it is important you know what they will be doing. So in about an hour you are going to be briefed nonstop until you die of boredom, as I almost did, or six o'clock rolls around when you will get dressed for the party."

There was a chorus of groans from the five doomed men and women of the NYPD.

* * *

><p>After what felt like an infinite lecture from dozens of identical looking agents, they were finally allowed to leave, get dressed up and head to NoriTech South in their own vehicles. Rachel had tried to suggest they ride together again, but Santana had convinced her that it would seem too suspicious, and it would have been when her car pulled up with Rachel's strangled corpse in the front seat.<p>

The debriefing was as Sue had said, intensely boring, meaning Santana had checked out half way through. Not that it mattered, the whole thing was formalities and furthermore it was clear that the CIA found them to be more in the way than anything, so she sauntered up to the door with the full intent of enjoying the party and not a damn thing else.

Unfortunately Rachel wasn't that far behind her and caught up to Santana with her motor mouth set to full throttle.

"I do dream of making the grade to detective, do you think this is what it's like? Oh, do you like my dress? I picked it up today, I don't really like green that much but it does look good on me. What's with your outfit, a leather jacket and jeans? Really?"

"They're designer," she managed to say in the lull that existed only because Rachel took a breath.

"You look nice and all but also a bit, I dunno butch I guess."

Santana was trying not to lose her temper and blow their cover but this woman was making it hard, "Butch? Fuck you I look hot and you look poor in the worst possible way."

"There is no reason to get testy, I just think you have a wardrobe that could do with a sundress or two. Maybe sometime we can go shopping and I can show you what would look good on you."

"I would rather eat glass Berry," she snapped.

The crowd was thick and she tried her best to lose Rachel in it but the woman was on her like a tick, there was just no way to shake her. Resigned she made her way to the buffet table to get something to eat and, hey maybe Rachel would too, food goes in, words don't come out.

"Ugh, so much meat how can you stand it? I am a vegetarian on her way to full blown Vegan."

"Interesting," she said filling her plate with ham, crackers and cheese.

"Have you seen Quinn? We need to make sure we have a beat on her for when-"

Santana turned around and leaned close, "If one of these people is the person we are looking for, your constant blathering about our mission will send them away don't you think?" she whispered tersely.

She covered her mouth and looked around suspiciously before she caught up to Santana who had taken her pause as a cue to bolt away. "Wait, we really do need to find her first," she whispered to her partner, which was no small task seeing as how Santana was taller and moving at a good clip ahead of her.

The far wall of the building at the top of three small steps was very thinly populated making it a perfect vantage point for her to pretend to do what she was here for and for Rachel to keep blurting out their mission with only the slightest chance they be overheard. She leaned heavily against the wall and began to eat her cracker sandwiches and realizing that it was her first meal of the day.

"Listen, the odds of us seeing anyone familiar here are pretty much nil. Why? Because only an idiot would strike the same place twice over a three day period."

Rachel thought about that, "I suppose."

"Besides this whole thing stinks."

"How do you mean?"

"What in the hell is this place doing with programs that can get through White House security."

That annoying know it all expression made an appearance on her face and Santana immediately regretted saying anything, "Weren't you listening to Agent Braun? It doesn't hack it, it just pushes it to the side. Almost like freezing the computer's many defense systems, changes what it wants, then activates them again. It's like it teleports inside the computer while stopping time for the computer itself and also giving out signals as though everything were functional, otherwise, obviously, you would know they were hacking you if the computer froze."

"No."

"What?"

"No I didn't listen to Agent Braun and after you asked me that question I stopped listening to you."

The smaller woman huffed and pushed herself against the same wall, "Seriously where is Quinn?"

"Wow! You have such a girl crush on her!"

Santana had been kidding, but the look of horror and indignation on Rachel's face made her think she struck a nerve.

"I do not!" she yelled far too loudly.

A few people turned to look and Santana busied herself with her crackers trying to look as uninvolved with Rachel as possible.

"Take it back Santana!" she whispered fiercely.

"Why? You clearly have an obsession with her, it's cute really," she didn't really think that, but the rainbow of colors Rachel's face turned made it too much fun to stop.

"I just need to know her location because as it says, in our handbook, on steak out missions if the leader of the operation isn't visible then we are to know exactly where he or she is," she whispered.

"Right," Sarcasm dripped from that one word, "We do have radios you know."

"But Sergeant Fabray told us only to radio if we got a visual on a suspect."

"Sergeant Fabray now is it? What happened to Quinn?"

Rachel growled angrily and stormed off, surprised Santana watched her march away. If she had known teasing her like that would get her to leave, she would have done it ages ago.

An hour into their surveillance operation, however, she almost missed having the chatty woman to talk to. Almost. Mingling with the guests was pointless since all they wanted to do was talk technology and she was well out of her depth in that department. Sam seemed to be making a lot of new friends though. Rachel was sulking in a far off corner, but was quite obviously watching the crowd and occasionally shooting her scalding glances.

In the midst of her ever growing boredom and overall impatience with the assignment she saw a flash of blonde in the crowd. At first she only really looked to see if it was Quinn, so she could possibly set up Rachel for more embarrassment but when she saw who it was, her heart skipped a beat. It was the woman from the bar. She was both elated and panicked, she had really wanted to talk to the woman after the show. On the other hand her being here meant she could possibly be the very person every agent and officer in this room was looking for. Before jumping to any conclusions she moved carefully up to the woman, who was currently talking to a random businessman, and tapped her on the shoulder. Santana didn't say sappy shit like, 'You are even more breathtaking up close.' but if she were the type, she really would have. She probably would have added something about how her silky blue dress brought out her eyes, but again, too sappy.

The woman spun around and smiled widely when she saw Santana, as if she had been waiting for her, "Hi there!" she chirped.

Santana found herself at a loss for words, somewhere in between her expectant attitude and the gemlike shine in her eyes her speech center lost all of its social interaction notes, "Hello."

"You were at Femme the other night, right?"

"Yes I was. How did you know that?" she asked a bit shocked.

"I dance there sometimes. I work here and the pay is decent, but you make so much more dancing in a day there than a week here."

"The way you dance I'm not surprised," Santana said.

With an effort she pulled her eyes away from those dazzling eyes and down to the ID badge hanging from her neck, it read Britney Ecreip. She frowned, what the hell kind of name was that? But the badge was legit, it even had the imprinted holographic seal they were told to check for time and time again so Santana felt that, all necessary precautions taken, it was quite safe to hit on this woman.

"So how do you pronounce your last name."

In a weird move she grabbed her tag and looked at it closely, she scrunched up her nose, clearly thinking then dropped it saying, "No idea really."

Santana had to laugh, because that had to have been a joke, "Well answer this one. How do you remember me from the club?"

"Because you were the hottest girl there," she said with a smile.

Suddenly this whole ridiculous set up seemed worthwhile. "Santana Lopez," she said extending her hand, Britney took it gently with a look in her eyes that made Santana want to invite her somewhere private.

"So Santana what brings you here?"

"I'm a cop," she said simply.

Britney's beautiful smile widened, "Really? That's sexy."

Santana was making a serious effort not to act silly at her complements, "What is it that you do here?"

She shrugged, "Nothing important, that's why I work at Femme sometimes. I'm apparently not even smart enough to pretend to be a computer programmer."

"Who told you that?"

"Friends of mine," she said vaguely.

"I think you're smart enough to be whatever you want."

Britney beamed at her and she couldn't help but feel like a better person because of it, then she heard her phone ring. Irritated she yanked it out of her coat pocket and saw the caller ID read Berry. She clicked the Silence button and put it back in her pocket.

"You sure you don't want to get that?"

"Positive. So how interested would you be in meeting in a more private setting?"

"You mean like a date? I would love to."

Santana's next words were cut off by a buzz in her pocket, now furious she pulled it out to see a text message on the screen:

**Quit flirting we have a job to do! -Berry**

She turned her phone off.

Britney swiped a pen off a man who was standing near her without even turning around, so he didn't even notice, and wrote her number on Santana's palm, "I do have to go though, this is a party for everyone, but me," she pouted. "Call me and tell me when you're going to pick me up. I should tell you though I'm a bit of a night person," she said and gave Santana another one of her smiles before she turned and practically dissolved into the sea of people.

As Britney left Rachel fazed in behind her, "What the hell Santana? We have a job to do!" she snapped quietly.

"I think I achieved all I planned to for tonight," Santana said with a sloppy grin.

* * *

><p>Brittany Pierce pranced happily into a dilapidated building a block from NoriTech South. After climbing what she felt was an enormous number of stairs she arrived at a faded red door. She opened it to find the apartment was filled with computer equipment, wires, and television monitors that covered one whole wall. It was already a small apartment but with all the equipment and people, the room was cramped and hot. The sound of her entering found her greeted by the nervous face of her friend Tina who had been watching the monitors. Lauren, who was hunched over her laptop at the far side of the room, heard her enter, but seemed unperturbed as she sat looking intently at the screen, her fingers flying concert pianist style over the keys.<p>

Once she recognized her, Tina gave her a warm smile. As she closed the door behind her someone rushed out of the bedroom.

The pale man looked at her warily, but like Tina, relaxed when he recognized her, "Jesus Britt how many times do we have to tell you to knock before you just open the door?" he sighed.

"How many times do I have to tell you to lock it," Lauren said offhandedly.

Brittany recognized the man and was suddenly explosively happy, "Kurt!" she shrieked and dashed to hug him.

He returned it warmly then pulled away and looked over her dress, "Wow you guys really needed me to show up sooner."

"You should have seen what she wore to strip in," Tina chuckled.

Kurt winced, "I can only imagine."

"How long have you been in town?" Brittany asked almost bouncing with joy.

"I've been in New York for a week, but I only arrived here a few minutes ago. As we all know getting in touch with Lauren is about as easy as catching Carmen Sandiego."

Brittany didn't get it at all so she hugged him again, "I'm so glad you're okay."

"Me? You got it way worse," Tina shot him a quick, 'Don't bring that up' look over their friends shoulder so he veered off that topic, "It's good to be back in any case." Kurt leaned over and looked at Brittany's ID tag and closed his eyes with a pained expression, "Who's idea was it to let her name herself?"

Tina raised her hand, "Lauren's the one who's good at naming people and she was busy at the time. I figured it would be better if Brittany picked it so she can remember it."

He looked at Brittany with a skeptical glance, "Remember it? The first name is the same! Never mind this last part. Can you even read your own fake name?"

"The first name is not the same, it's spelled differently and I can read it, it says Britney… and my last name backwards," she said smiling with slight pride in how clever her code name was.

"Please don't tell me you introduced yourself like that," he said looking wide eyed and worried.

"No, I'm not stupid," she huffed.

Kurt was keeping suspiciously quiet.

"So," she said turning to Lauren, "How did I do?"

"Great, somehow, as per usual," Lauren replied, "Tina got into their surveillance feed and kept an eye on you, we thought you were busted for sure about eight times, then you started flirting with that woman. "

"Oh that was Santana, she's a cop and very pretty," Brittany said happily.

Tina and Kurt looked at her like she was insane and even Lauren turned her head, though her fingers kept on typing.

"They have undercover cops?" Kurt mumbled feeling a chill, "We haven't been watching the civilians! What the hell? That doesn't make any sense why would they bother to involve the local cops?"

Tina turned to the wall of monitors and began searching them, "How many? Do you know?"

Brittany shrugged not liking how panicked the situation was becoming, she hated panic, she never knew the right way to react, "I don't know if she was undercover, she just said she was a cop."

Kurt looked at Tina, "It is possible that she is just a guest, that would make way more sense than the CIA sharing us with the NYPD," he said slowly.

"It's not like it matters, my leech is in place and I have been copying a steady stream of data for an hour now. They missed their opportunity to know what the hell is going on," Lauren said smugly.

"How long until we're ready to get packed up and get out of this hole?" Tina asked, eyes still glued to the monitors.

Lauren rolled her eyes, "And haul all this back to our other equally cramped hole? What's your hurry? We haven't been traced. You can't rush genius. I have to decode this thing, simultaneously block it from shutting me out, while blocking all the tracers and back-hacking, plus answer your paranoid questions."

"Then answer my paranoid question," Tina snapped.

"At least half an hour."

Kurt rubbed his forehead, "We really should have used the van for this mission."

"The old one? The one that was not only ID'ed in Washington, but has bullet holes in it? Yeah no way anyone will notice that," Tina laughed.

Kurt sighed, "In New York it's not as unlikely as you think."

Brittany shuffled uncomfortably, "I don't want to be in the old van," she said quietly placing her hand on her chest, memories making old wounds hurt.

Seeing this, Kurt rubbed her back consolingly, "I'm sorry I brought it up. It doesn't matter, this is better in any case. Vans are clichéd anyway."

She smiled weakly at him and sat down in one of the few chairs not covered in wires. Watching her, Kurt slid in next to Tina and asked in a whisper, "How has she held up?"

"Better than I thought she would," Tina said quietly.

"What about Artie?"

"No change, he still can't walk and I'm pretty sure he never will again. The only doctors we trust to see him, say it's permanent. It hasn't stopped him from being his usual silly self, but I feel like he is making himself keep a smile on his face for us."

"Where is he now?"

"In one of our safe houses not too far from here. We'll visit him soon so you'll see him."

Kurt nodded and looked over his shoulder at Brittany, he knew what she was thinking about from the cheerless look that seemed etched on her face. Their last job had gone so horribly wrong and she had gotten the brunt of it, it pained him to watch someone who was as sweet as Brittany go the way he knew she was going. At the end of this, their last mission together, he was quite sure she would never be the same.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Santana sat on her couch with her cell phone in her hand twirling it nervously. It had been a whole week since she had met the woman with the golden hair and ice blue eyes and she was acting like a total teenager about calling her. It was so absurd, she had been on countless dates and none of them had ended badly, well none in her adult life… none with women anyway. For some reason the idea of meeting this woman again made butterflies flutter in her chest and she _hated_ that feeling.

The number had been in her phone from the moment Britney left her sight and for the millionth time she flipped it open, scrolled to the number, and let her thumb hover over the Send button. And for the millionth time she snapped it shut and tossed it on the cushion next to her with a sigh. A bemused smile drifted over her face at the thought of what Dr. Pillsbury would say if she saw her acting like this, over a woman she had seen twice and talked to once.

She sat in the dark of her apartment for several more minutes, before she snatched up the phone, found the desired number and mashed Send before she could chicken out again. As the ringing sound started, she almost shut the phone again but at the end of the first ring a light happy voice answered.

"Hello?"

"Hello," she responded somehow, not recalling any other way to reply.

"Santana? I'm so glad you called! For a while I thought you might have lost my number!"

"Sorry about the delay, I was pretty busy at work," she said, all while smacking herself in the head for sounding like an idiot.

"So where are we going?"

There was a pause, "What?"

"Our date? You promised," even over the phone, Santana could tell she was pouting and was too startled to point out that she had never promised to take her anywhere.

"Oh. Um, honestly I haven't been to a lot of hangout spots besides Femme," she clenched her eyes shut in an attempt to not throw the phone and abort the conversation entirely, _Great! Now you sound like a capital P Pervert!_ "So did you have someplace in mind?"

"Actually there is somewhere I would want to go," she said brightly.

Santana wrote down the address Britney gave her, said a clumsy goodbye that made her head throb in anger at herself. She dashed to her bedroom to get dressed only to find that since she was never actually told where they were going she had no idea what would be appropriate.

After about fifteen minutes of frantic coordination, she decided on a white button down shirt and fitted black jeans as the perfect in-between of formal and casual. Which is how she was ten minutes late and the most overdressed patron at Sly's Burgers.

The place seemed to be a hangout for grownups who secretly celebrated their childhood at night. There were arcade games all over the place ranging from Frogger to Tekken 6, a slide big enough for an adult at the bottom of which was a ball pit. Sly's seemed popular enough, though Santana had never heard of it, however the name rang a distant bell. Maybe Sam had mentioned it at some point, this seemed like his kind of thing.

She had ordered her own burger and fries, but was far more interested in watching Britney tackle a Sloppy Joe without ruining the front of her shirt.

"So do you come here a lot?" Santana asked, eyeing the nerd gone wrong wallpaper.

She chewed hastily nodding, "Yeah, but not enough," she said after swallowing heavily.

Santana had never felt more out of her depth, this woman was clumsy and always seemed to be a tick off, yet somehow these were all qualities that made her more attractive. The same actions from anyone else, would have had her out the door in seconds.

"So no more trouble at NoriTech?"

Britney gave her an odd look, "Why would I have… Oh! Right I used to work there, but I quit."

She laughed, "Wow and forgot about it that fast?"

"I got what I needed and moved on."

"What do you plan to do now?"

She was oddly quiet at that question, then shrugged, "There are some things I want to do, just some personal things I need to resolve and then… I don't know, I'd never thought about it."

"You should dance," Santana suggested immediately.

Britney frowned, "I don't really like taking off my clothes in front of strangers that much…"

She waved her hands defensively, "No, no, no not stripping. I mean professionally, you are really good."

Her eyes lit up and Santana felt her insides go silly again, "You really think so?"

"Definitely."

"I have been really trying to think of what to do with the rest of my life, but nothing ever seems right. Dancing would be fun though," she said thoughtfully.

Santana watched her contentedly and found that talking with Britney was the easiest thing she had ever done. She didn't feel the need to be on guard, nor was she annoyed by the topics. While lost in these thoughts, she noticed a bit of food on the corner of her mouth and thoughtlessly removed it with her thumb. Only after she had done it, was she aware of the intimacy of that action and instantly regretted it, the worst part was, she wasn't sure why. It was really more her style to be forward about what she wanted and there was no denying she wanted Britney. However, in this case, she felt moving too fast might ruin everything and she valued their blossoming relationship enough not to do that. She took a long swig of her coke to try and cover the blunder.

For her part Britney giggled at the action smiling widely, "You really are sweet."

She almost choked. No one had ever called her that in her whole life and she was including her parents in that count. No doubt about it, Santana was up the creek with no paddle. She had no earthly clue how to woo a woman without the goal at the end of the date being sex and a prompt 'Goodbye I'll probably never see you again' in the morning.

She went into a mad scramble for a different topic to switch to, "So have you lived here long?"

"No, I'm pretty new. I was thinking about moving south or something, but I think New York has really started to grow on me," she said looking at Santana meaningfully.

Under that gaze she felt her stomach clench in an all too familiar way, "That's good," her voice came out more weakly than she had intended.

"Have you lived here long?" she asked taking another bite of her sandwich.

"It's where I grew up and I have to admit, when I was little I hated it here."

"Why?" she asked thickly through a mouth full of food.

Santana ignored how cute she thought that was and answered, "I had a bit of an identity crisis when I was younger and since I was miserable, I decided to make everyone else miserable too. It just led to me sort of blowing up every positive relationship I had." When she finished talking, she looked wistfully out the window wishing she could somehow tactfully throw herself out of it and escape the idiotic conversation topics she kept drifting to. They were way to early in their relationship to talk about her childhood. She had been seeing Dr. Pillsbury for years and they still hadn't gone there.

"Identity crisis?" Britney asked innocently.

At this moment, she really did consider just calling off the whole date. On the other hand, in her opinion, the explanation would do just about the same thing.

"Yeah when I was younger, I had a hard time dealing with my attraction to girls, especially since I knew that if my parents found out they would flip out. So I just kept it pent up and took all my frustration out on everyone around me. I even made my parents literally hate me to the point where they would rather I stay out all night instead of coming home. It was stupid, but I remember thinking that if I could force them to hate me, then it wouldn't feel like a rejection of the real me when they found out. Their disappointment and disapproval would be business as usual."

Britney looked at her wide eyed, "Did you make up with them?"

"No. They live in Queens and I haven't seen them since I moved out of their house when I was fifteen."

Santana was alarmed to see the blue eyes gazing into hers, were filled with tears, "That's awful," she said sadly.

"I can be a real idiot sometimes," she said, speaking more to herself than Britney. She briefly considered writing a book called 'How to Kill the Mood in Ten Questions or Less.'

She shook her head, "I meant them. You're their daughter they should love you no matter what."

"I'm really over it. Please don't cry," was all Santana could think to say.

"I'm not," she said defiantly, as she continued to be on the brink of doing so.

Though she hated to admit it, talking about the past hadn't been as bad as she had thought it would be, obviously pushing aside how badly it was making her date go. Finally they moved on to the much safer topic of favorite movies and the rest of their meal passed without Santana wanting to fling herself off a mountain. Although, she did still cringe at how her body reacted to Britney's every smile and laugh. She had no idea what sort of evolutionary function that butterflies in the stomach feeling served, except to make her feel like a moron.

At the end of the meal Santana asked to walk Britney to her car only to find the blonde fidget at the question.

"I took the bus actually. I don't have a car."

"No problem I can drive you home," Santana said, motioning towards her car.

Britney hesitated, "It's fine, I'll take the bus."

Santana couldn't help but chuckle dejectedly, "I really messed this date up," she said turning to leave, but she was stopped by a hand on her arm.

"It has nothing to do with you…well it does, but it's not about me," Britney rapidly explained.

"You are going to have to explain that one."

"I have roommates and they sorta know you're a cop, cause I told them about you, and if they knew I was with you, they would probably skin me."

Santana had to laugh, this wasn't even the first time this had come up. Usually it was a bunch of idiots, incorrectly growing their own marijuana, thinking that she gave two shits about their closet green house.

"How about this, I'll drive you home and drop you off a few blocks away and that way you can keep your bus fare and your skin."

"I would like that," she said, happily taking Santana's arm and allowing the other woman to guide her to her car.

Riding with Britney was the exact opposite of riding with Rachel. They seemed to reach their destination, which was a few miles away, in minutes. The whole time Santana was wrestling with what to do. She had planned for a charming goodbye at Sly's and maybe to test the waters for an encore date. Now she was wondering if she should be discussing future dates now or after she stopped. These thoughts swarmed in her head until they arrived at the location Britney had specified. It was a nice neighborhood with clean streets and her passenger assured her she walked home every day so all was safe.

Santana decided last minute to abort all plans and just let her leave before she found a way to further ruin their evening. She felt sure whatever answer she picked would be the wrong one.

The car stopped on the side of a well lit, yet deserted street and Santana turned to say goodnight, and found it impossible because her lips were captured by Britney's. She was stunned, not just by how good of a kisser she was but by how it made her lightheaded. A feeling that had literally never happened before without the aid of medication.

When she pulled away, she looked a bit bashful, "I'm sorry I just really wanted to do that all night."

Santana managed to form the words, "That was fine."

"You have to take me out again soon," she demanded looking stern.

"Absolutely."

Britney exited the car, leaving Santana still frozen in place. She sat in her car watching the taller woman until she was out of sight. Even then she just stared blankly at the spot where she vanished, her inner turmoil had reached new heights. There was a part that was whopping and hollering at the kiss, a jeering part that was disappointed she could be so affected by something so trivial and a furious stubborn part that refused to admit that this was a love at first sight situation. She barely believed in love, in the first place, so the thought of falling for anyone that quickly, disturbed her.

* * *

><p>The following day was bright, sunny and cloudless. This was not at all reflected in Brittany as she stood at the door of an upscale apartment building feeling the same dread she felt every time she approached it; the tare between being overwhelmingly miserable and having to pretend to be happy. Finally she knocked lightly before using her key to open the door.<p>

She stepped inside, her big fake smile in place, and called out to the house, "Artie where are you?"

"Bedroom," he called back.

Brittany walked in to see him reading a book, the title of which she couldn't make out, "How are you?"

"Fine. How about you?"

"Fine," A lie, an utter lie.

"Come here," he said, opening his arms.

She crossed the room and hugged him tightly wishing the power of her thoughts could make him walk again, "Were you able to find out anything here?"

He let her go and sighed, "No, and I'm glad. You know how I feel about this project."

"But Artie we need your help," she pleaded kneeling next to the bed.

"I know and I am doing my best, but I really do wish you would all just stop and call it quits here. I mean haven't we all lost enough already?"

She shook her head stubbornly, "I can't. We can't and we won't fail."

He reached over and brushed her hair behind her ear, "Have you found where you want to live after all this is over."

She took his hand and held it, "I think I want to stay here."

"You know you can't stay with me right?"

She nodded, "I know, but I met somebody and I think I would want to stay with her."

His eyebrows went up, "Her, huh?"

A genuine smile took over at the thought of Santana, "She's really pretty and kind. I've only been on one date with her, but… she's special."

Artie looked at her a little sadly, "You're in love with her?"

"I think so," she laughed, "I know it sounds stupid."

"No, it's great. I hope you two work out."

She looked at him earnestly trying to communicate her feelings, "You know I would stay with you if you would let me."

"Brittany we can't see each other anymore after this, you, me, Kurt, Lauren, Tina, we all have to go our separate ways. I know it sucks, but trust me it has to be this way. This woman, you should stay with her, love her, but only if she loves you back. You are a special person yourself, don't forget that."

"You won't forget me will you?"

"Never," He said squeezing her hand gently.

* * *

><p>Over the next week Santana's anxiety about Britney stayed with her, even at work. They had gone on two more dates together and they had ended well enough, though none of them with a kiss as spectacular as the first time. It was almost useful to have her to think about when she found herself, unfortunately, stuck in a squad car with Rachel.<p>

The smaller woman rattled on about all kinds of unimportant things non-stop. Most of it was reciting handbook rules, giving Santana time to check out and do some introspection as she drove through the city streets. The day passed that way and they were almost to the end of their shift when the background noise that had been the steady buzz of Rachel's mouth stopped. Santana noticed immediately, the sound of silence was so unusual, it snapped her out of her own thoughts. She looked questioningly at Rachel who was looking at her expectantly.

"What?" she asked a little freaked out.

"I asked what has you so quiet today?"

Santana almost choked on nothing, "Me? How could I get a word in edgewise…"

"You always interject to tell me your opinion of my voice or how much of a prude you think I'm being. Today, nothing. You have just been sitting there with that look… THAT LOOK!" she squealed and Santana nearly swerved into oncoming traffic, "I know that look! You are in love."

"Bullshit Berry I'm not in anything but a state of annoyance."

"Santana I know dreamy eyes when I see them, in my youth I created them. They are my specialty and you, my dear, have them."

"Keep testing me and I swear I will tell Quinn about your weird obsession with her," she said, hoping that would upset her enough to drop it. It did.

"Where are you getting this idea from? Sergeant Fabray and I have a normal working relationship, and as I told you before I am not gay. Not that I have anything against gay people, I have two gay dads as a matter of fact."

Santana barked a laugh, "Okay first, just because your parents are gay doesn't mean you automatically cannot be considered intolerant and second, who the hell says two gay dads? If you had two dads and they weren't gay then you would need to add to that, but two gay dads is plain redundant."

"That may be so, but it doesn't change the fact…"

"That you love Quinn," Santana interrupted.

"God dammit Santana why are you so insistent on that? It is against regulations to carry on relationships with other officers of a lower rank, thanks to Puckerman. So even if the Sergeant did wish to pursue me, we are both of too high a moral standing to break the rules and furthermore I'M NOT GAY."

Santana shrugged, "Who knows, maybe you're a noodle."

"A what?"

"A noodle. Straight until wet."

Rachel flared up for a reply, but she was cut off by the radio. Some hoodlums were holding up a liquor store as per usual in the late hours in New York. Santana turned on the siren and raced to the scene. Eager to find something to do, other than dwell on Britney or tease Rachel.

They sped down busy streets, weaving through traffic until they arrived at their destination to find a shitstorm already in progress. It seemed that it was less of a robbery and more of a turf war, with a side of looting. Santana relished the feeling that filled her, this was familiar, this she knew how to deal with. She was out of her car, gun drawn in an instant. Rachel seemed to be fumbling with her seatbelt but she didn't wait. She had never really needed a partner, Sue just kept insisting on giving her one.

There were two groups of about twenty boys all in their teens, some fighting and some, even now, coming out of the liquor store with armfuls of swag. Upon seeing the blue and white lights, everyone who was looting fled and several of the fights broke up leaving about five boys as her immediate problem. They had been yelling at each other, guns at the ready, but now their eyes were trained on her.

"Drop 'em and get on the ground!" she yelled authoritatively. And they all did as she said, all but one, he was a freckled pale boy with hardened dangerous eyes. Santana turned her gun on him, "Listen buddy whatever this little fight is about isn't worth a bullet in your ass!"

Rachel finally freed herself from her seatbelt and launched herself out of the car, "Freeze!" she screamed.

Santana winced, "No one is moving Berry," she mumbled to her.

"Oh right. I should go cuff the others."

It was only then that she realized that this was Rachel's first time in a situation of this magnitude, and despite her outright obsession with rules she had no idea what she was doing.

"No, idiot, wait until I get this one to drop his weapon before you wander over there," she said, keeping her voice low so the boys couldn't hear how disorganized they were. However, as they spoke quietly the boy with the gun took off running and to her horror Rachel gave chase.

At that moment Puck arrived in his car with Finn and Santana made the snap decision to leave it to them. She tore off in the direction they had run in at full speed and turned the corner just in time to see Rachel disappear around another one a few yards ahead. As she approached, she heard what she had been hoping desperately that she wouldn't; gunshots. Three of them rang down the alley and when she hit the end she peaked carefully around the corner to see what was going on.

Rachel was there crouched behind a dumpster, apparently unhurt, her gun held firmly and her chest heaving with exertion and fear. Santana looked for the boy but saw no one, however she knew better than to assume no one was there and she hoped Rachel knew the same. Then suddenly she saw him, he had been hiding on the opposite side of the same dumpster, and he had spun out of that spot and dashed right for where he knew Rachel was, gun ready. Santana was in just the wrong position, so to fire would put her at an equal likelihood of hitting the teen or her partner so all she could do was yell.

"Look out!" she screamed breaking cover and running to a better position, though given the speed at which it all was happening, she knew it would be too late.

A shot rang out and then, suddenly, it was over. The teen slumped heavily on the ground, his gun skidding away. Rachel sat with her gun looking at him, terror all over her face. The boy was dead from the hole that had been blown through his head, Rachel had killed him.

Santana moved carefully to her side and placed a hand gently on her shoulder, "Are you alright?"

"I… is he dead?" her voice was soft and disbelieving.

"Yes he's dead."

"I didn't mean to kill him," she looked at Santana with watery pleading eyes.

"I know, but you had to shoot, he would have killed you." On a different day she would have pointed out how this wouldn't have been an issue if she hadn't taken off without so much as warning her partner. The look on Rachel's face prevented her from doing that.

"I didn't mean to..." she whispered.

Puck suddenly burst from around the corner, gun out, "What the hell happened? You two alright?"

Santana nodded, "We're fine, but this kid tried some funny business, we are going to have oh so much paperwork on this."

Rachel snatched herself out of Santana's grasp, "Paperwork! This boy is dead and you are worried about the paperwork? How could you be so fucking cold, he is dead!" she shrieked. "Yes he made mistakes, but I just ended any future he could have had!" the tears started to flow as she finished her outburst.

Santana looked worried and Puck was outright distressed.

"Whoa, calm down Rachel, we're sorry okay. We just deal with this kind of thing a lot, we didn't mean to make light of it." Puck said, trying to smooth things over.

"I can't believe it! Jesse was right, I've sold into this system and now I'm what I fought so hard against," she said, though Puck and Santana were pretty sure they weren't being spoken to.

Puck glanced at her, "I think we need to get her out of here."

She nodded and carefully took Rachel's shoulders and guided her out of the alley and back into the squad car. By now about ten more officers had arrived and an ambulance was wailing its way towards the scene. Santana started up her car and drove back to the station, the whole way back she was casting nervous glances at Rachel who was stonily quiet. She noticed the smaller woman was staring intently at the flecks of blood sprinkled on her forearms.

"Rachel listen to me, I know you feel bad now but trust me it will get better."

"Have you ever killed someone?" she asked softly, her eyes never leaving the blood.

"A couple of times. It had to be done and I don't regret it because you can't just roll over and die just because someone wants you to."

Tears began to fall and mingle with the blood, "His mother is going to be so sad," she said with a quavering voice.

They made it too the precinct, in Santana's opinion not a second too soon. After getting her washed up and into more clean and comfortable clothes, she made sure Rachel was immediately briefed, and she gave her own testimony while it was still fresh in her mind. She even sat down with Rachel and began the extensive amount of paperwork she had dreaded from the start. Usually she would say it is a horrible idea to put someone through the wringer after their first kill but she had a sneaking suspicion that if Rachel waited she would do something stupid like say the whole thing was her fault and demand to be hauled off to jail because Rachel was nothing if not self-righteous and overdramatic.

They sat in the currently unoccupied break room filling out the last few forms they had to before they were done with the whole incident. Santana was mostly irritated because her shift had ended four hours ago but she pressed on anyway, the end of her shitty day in sight. She felt an abrupt need to see Britney again, somehow she felt it would make her whole day better.

All happiness gained from that thought was lost as Sergeant Fabray walked in.

"Officer Berry what is this about you resigning?" she asked in lieu of a greeting.

Santana looked bewilderedly at Rachel, they had been together since the shooting when would she have had time to do that? Then she understood; she resigned by text on her phone. Idiot.

"I don't think I make a very good officer," Rachel muttered, "I left my partner to deal with four perpetrators and proceeded to fail at apprehending the fifth."

"Speak up!" Quinn snapped, startling both of them, "If you are going to spout bullshit then say it with a bit more conviction."

"Come on cut her some slack, she's had a crap day."

"Officer Lopez if I want your input I'll ask for it. As for you Berry, you are one of the few promising new faces on this force and you want to quit because you made a mistake?"

Rachel looked totally offended, "Killing someone isn't just a mistake!"

"No, that wasn't your problem, that part you handled correctly, he was coming to kill you and you fired. It's a shame the shot killed him but you certainly shouldn't be sorry. You made an error in judgment to go alone with no experience. That is a mistake I am very sure you will never make again, knowing that, I can't just let you resign."

"You can't stop me," Rachel said defiantly.

Quinn then knelt down next to Rachel's chair and said, "I can't make you do anything but I am requesting you take a three day absence to think about what you want to do. While you think, consider that if you leave, the officer with the best record on the force will be Santana. If you really think this city is safer in her hands then maybe you aren't who I thought you were."

Rachel seemed to really take her words to heart, and the tormented look on her face was washing away. The fact that Quinn had managed to make her feel better was the only thing keeping Santana from starting another fight. The young officer's distress was also what was keeping her from saying something inappropriate about the way Quinn was consoling her. Instead she finished filling out her forms and left Quinn to continue to crash Rachel's pity party.

She supposed she was lucky because she did not want to be the one to try and console Rachel, the only prize to be won was to have her back to normal talking endlessly. Like climbing a mountain to find the only thing waiting is a boot to kick you back down.

At home, she collapsed on her bed only to find she was too tired to actually sleep. So she ate dinner, exercised, and settled down to watch TV, but she was still wide awake and exhausted. She also couldn't stop looking at her phone, she really wanted to call Britney, but that would seem desperate to call her again so soon. Wouldn't it? Was two days too soon? So she tried to distract herself with housework, but all she ended up doing was housework while looking at the phone.

Then it actually rang, a bit surprised she walked over to it, flipped it open and heard Puck's voice on the other end, "Heya Santana where th' hell you at woman?"

She frowned, he was very drunk, "At home."

"We're at Femme and you aren't 'n I need a wingwoman cause Chang and Evans suck at it."

"No-go on that… I'm kind of seeing someone."

There was what sounded like a laugh or a harp seal getting shot, "I knew it! You have been so fuckin' bipolar lately, one minute yer all moody and th' next yer all dreamy."

"Have not!" she snapped, feeling stupid for falling into the same trap she had set for Rachel countless times.

"Naw, but seriously is this chick hot?"

"Very."

"Aw com'on details."

"Puck you're drunk, have Mike or Sam drive you home before the precinct is hit with another suit over you disturbing the peace."

"Same to you. Get laid quick so you can stop being an asshole 'n get back to Femme cause I need you," he laughed drunkenly.

Santana hung up stared at her phone a little irritated. Puck hadn't been wrong, her long term lack of sex in the presence of someone she couldn't deny she really wanted to have sex with, was making her a bit moody, but the implication that sex was the end goal of these dates pissed her off a little. He had every right to think so though, since he had met her, that had been the case every single other time.

Again her phone rang, the sound startled her and she spent the first three rings juggling it clumsily between hands. Finally she got a grip and flipped the top open irritated at Puck for not understanding that no meant no.

"What?" she barked.

"Sorry is this a bad time?" came Britney's meek voice.

"Oh, Britney! No I thought you were… Doesn't matter. Um what's up?"

"I was wondering if you were busy."

"Not in the slightest, did you want to meet somewhere?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to see a movie? There is a drive-in theater by my place and I've always wanted to go to one."

The tired, sleepy feeling she had been fighting suddenly vanished, "That sounds good, I'll pick you up. At the usual discrete location," she added playfully.

"I'm sorry about that…"

"Don't be. I just need to take a quick shower and I'll be right there."

After a hasty farewell, she proceeded to get cleaned up and dressed and was on her way out when her doorbell rang. She opened it feeling concerned that whoever this was would impede her progress, she was right, it was Rachel. She looked like she had been crying for hours and her eyes were pleading for a friend, Santana had neither the desire or the time to be that person.

"What's going on did I forget something?" she said hoping the other woman might just take a hint and back out of asking to come in as she knew she would.

"Santana can I talk to you?" She sighed and moved from in front of the door, "Sorry to show up like this I know you must be sleepy."

"Yeah…" she said noncommittally.

Rachel walked into the living room and sat down on the couch, "I'm just… I've never been so confused in my life," she said breaking into hysterical tears.

Santana was proud of herself for not picking Rachel up and throwing her out the door. She did not have time for this.

"I know Quinn was kind of rough on you, but she was sort of right. You may be an egoistic, narcissistic, obnoxious know-it-all but you are a good cop," she cried more. "I meant that in a good way. Plus you aren't the only person who has gone through this, Sue or Quinn will have made an appointment with Dr. Pillsbury for you and you can work through your feelings with a professional."

Her torrential crying slowed to a steady trickle and she looked up at her partner, "Santana I messed up bad. I've messed up so bad I don't even know what the right thing is anymore. I may be a good cop, but maybe the best a cop can be is a shady person."

She shrugged, "The world isn't black and white Rachel neither are the people in it."

"That's the first time you called me by my first name," she said and then for some reason started crying harder than ever.

"Okay look what you need is a good night's rest alright? Seriously go home and sleep and everything will make more sense in the morning," she said lifting Rachel up and guiding her gently to the door.

"You really think so?"

"I swear, it never fails."

Rachel turned and hugged her and opened the door, before she left she turned and gave the other woman a fleeting smile, "Thanks, Santana."

"Welcome," she said plastering a grin on her face until the door shut, then she collapsed on her couch feeling drained.

Then suddenly remembering why she was up so late at night went to the door, checking the peephole to make sure Rachel had actually left, got in her car, and raced to pick up her date.

She was starting to have less hatred for the giddy feeling that would bubble in her chest when they met. It was silly that she still felt this way after all this time but as she was constantly told a long stable relationship was a good thing, so this was all par for the course.

After picking up Britney and bringing her to the drive-in which, despite the decrepit half assed place Santana had been imagining, was actually a nice spot. She had never heard of the movie they watched and was honestly paying it no mind. Instead she was alternating watching the gentle rise and fall of Britney's chest and examining the long legs shown off by her almost indecently short skirt from the corner of her eye.

"I really have a hard time not thinking about you lately," Britney said, seemingly out of nowhere.

Santana found this a very unusual way to start a conversation especially in the middle of a movie, but if she had learned anything, it was that this woman was unusual, "I can positively claim the same."

"The same what?" she asked blankly.

Santana shook her head, "Never mind."

"I'm glad I came here," she said never taking her eyes off the screen that towered in front of them.

"To the theater?"

"To New York. I got to meet you and that's reason enough, but there are so many amazing things here."

"You must have lived somewhere boring before," she chuckled.

"It wasn't boring, it just…wasn't as shiny."

Santana sent the girl a confused stare that she totally missed, "Right."

New York did have many benefits, one that Santana loved the most was the people and their ability to be straight forward about what they wanted. She had obviously adopted this attitude with pride but now seemed like a bad time to be upfront about what she was thinking. Britney was very pretty and dating her was nice, but touching her would surely be better. When they had met they had flirted heavily and now she had backed off for fear of this relationship following the pattern of all her others, leaving her wondering what it was she was supposed to do. How long did normal people date before the next step? She supposed she could ask Rachel and divide the answer by two…

"I was kind of wondering," she said turning her eyes to Santana, "Why are you a cop?"

"No real glamorous reason, my friends, Matt and Puck did it and so did I."

"Do you love your job?"

"Not at first, but now it's pretty much the only thing that matters, well it was until I met you." An alarm was going off in her head, somewhere some part of herself committed suicide from the sheer shame caused by the last part of that statement.

The adoring look on Britney's face made it all better, "Do you love me?"

The question caused her to freeze and replay the conversation, "Sorry what?"

Britney sat up and looked her in the eyes seriously, "Do you love me? Because I have been thinking about you so much I kind of realized that I love you."

There was no reason to tell the truth, yet under Britney's gaze she didn't feel that mulish need to never share what she felt, "I've only ever had crushes, so I have no idea what it's like but yeah I think I do."

"Good," she said leaning over and kissing Santana deeply.

Whatever the normal wait time for any of this was, Santana stopped caring about it here and now. For a few seconds they wrestled between deepening the kiss and trying to maneuver around the frustrating space between them and the stick shift until Britney finally got irritated enough to drag Santana to her side of the car. There was a confusing scramble of seatbelts, chair elevation and limbs, Britney was far more aggressive than Santana had been prepared for, but she certainly wasn't complaining. Her shirt was being worked off before she could finish reclining the seat and she found she didn't even kind of care that there were other cars around, though given that they were situated rather out of the way at the back of the lot it wouldn't take much for someone to notice them.

When it came to sexual encounters Santana didn't like being dominated, she preferred to have control of the flow of things but Britney wasn't giving her a chance and, like everything else that should have been a concern, she was really okay with it. The taller woman below her trailed kisses from her lips to collar bone and back again eliciting whimpers from her that she really and truly didn't want to let escape and her own arms were becoming useless in supporting her weight. Britney seeming to understand this and, in a move Santana was never able to figure out, flipped them into the back seat, this time Britney was on top of her looking at her with burning lust.

They resumed their previous activities, this time with far more access to each other. Santana managed to work off Britney's shirt and bra even though their bodies were never more than a few centimeters apart. The moment she was able to pull her lips away from their never ending kiss she looked over the body she had been thinking about perpetually from the moment they met, and then she froze. There was a scar on Britney's chest just below her collar bone she had never seen before, not even the last time she had seen her in her underwear at Femme. It wasn't from a fresh wound, yet it was clear whatever happened had happened recently. Normally a scar wouldn't bother her in the slightest, but she knew exactly what made scars like that.

"Britney who shot you?" she asked, her voice heavy.

There was a pause in which only their heavy breathing could be heard, Britney made a move for her shirt, but Santana grabbed her arms tightly, "What happened?"

Her head hung slightly and she looked suddenly quite miserable, "I don't know. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. My friend and I were going home and we got jumped by some guys, he got shot in the spine and they hit me in the back, it came out here," she said pointing to the scar.

"Is he okay?"

"No," she choked out as tears ran down her face.

Santana worked her way up into a sitting position, pulled Britney to her and held her close until her sobbing subsided. She was at a real loss for words, yet was internally cursing her life. This was just too much drama for one day and on top of it all her sex drive was completely unconcerned making concentrating on the situation very difficult.

"I'm sorry I shouldn't have made you talk about it," she said letting her go.

Britney smiled at her sadly, "It's nice you cared enough to ask."

"Maybe we should watch the rest of the movie," she suggested resigned to the fact that she had once again managed to ruin an opportunity.

Britney slouched back in the seat looking distractedly at the movie still playing, "I don't really like spy movies."

"If you don't like them then why…" she paused here to grab Britney's shirt and handed it to her, there was no way to think with her bare-chested in the back seat of her car, "did you ask to come see it."

"It was the only movie playing here and I really just wanted to go out with you, I didn't care where," she said while pulling her shirt back on.

"Next time you can just come to my house."

"I would like that."

"Should I just take you home now?" she asked searching the floor for her own shirt.

"Only if you promise to invite me over soon."

"Deal."

Santana climbed back into the driver's seat and located her shirt hanging from the rear view mirror, a bit amused she pulled it on and took a calming breath. Her blood pressure was slowly returning to normal and she was able to drive with a semi-clear mind. Their ride back was silent and she couldn't help but dream of having a time machine and going back in time to tell herself to keep her mouth. Not that it mattered, she was pretty sure that unless her future self explained it, she would demand to know what happened every time. Something about someone being cruel enough to shoot someone so kind caused rage to flare up in her, she wanted to ask more about the incident but felt she had pushed far enough. It seemed easy to work out in any case, she and her friend had been mugged on their way home, they tried to run away and had both been shot. No need to make her relive the whole thing when clearly it caused her so much pain.

Once they arrived at the usual spot Britney moved to get out and Santana felt she couldn't let her leave without saying anything.

"Britney," she said and waited for the other woman to look at her before she continued, "If you ever want to talk about it I'll listen."

She nodded, "I know I…"

Santana cut her off, "Just know I'm here."

The car shifted slightly as Britney leaned back in and kissed Santana affectionately before getting out and walking down the sidewalk to her apartment.

With a heavy sigh Santana drove herself home and once she arrived, walked in the door and flopped on her bed not even bothering with her clothes. Too much had happened and she was at the end of her exhausted rope. Sleep overtook her almost immediately.

* * *

><p>Brittany opened her apartment door quietly and carefully shut it. The hot cramped living room was dark except for the flickering lights from some of the computers. She could hear light melodious snoring, meaning at least Lauren and Tina were asleep. She took a step forward and almost screamed as the room was bathed in light, it came from a lamp in the corner under which sat Kurt in the one comfortable chair that existed in their home.<p>

"Out late I see," he said.

"I was looking for a new apartment."

"Britt you are a terrible liar for starters and there are no leasing offices open this late."

She looked at him hopelessly, "I was visiting Artie?"

He shook his head in a way that told her he didn't believe a word of it, "You are seeing that cop you met aren't you?"

Guilt was all over her face, "No."

He stood and moved close so she could hear him when he lowered his voice to a whisper, "You do know this is it? The final curtain call. And you will mess it all up if she finds out the truth."

"She won't."

He hung his head trying to keep himself from saying something too harsh, "I know you would never do anything to hurt us on purpose but this is playing with fire and if Lauren and Tina find out they will blow up. I don't need to tell you that the last thing we need on this mission is animosity on top of the shit we are calling down on ourselves."

"I don't want Tina and Lauren to explode, but Kurt I really do love her."

"Britt you love a lot of people, me included," he snapped.

"I told Artie about her, I told him I might stay here to be with her."

He became suddenly silent, Kurt of all people knew what it meant for Brittany to have said that to Artie and what's more to repeat it to him. He had been sure for a while that she would always be a lovesick mess after they all split, there was even a time he was worried she might kill herself. Her depression over what had happened, in addition to how she blamed herself completely for things that had been totally out of everyone's control, made him think she would never be able to function on her own. If there was someone who could pull her out of that, cop or not, he couldn't bring himself to ruin it.

"Okay Britt, you win, but be sure never to tell Tina and Lauren. And please, _please_ be careful about what you say to this woman."

She hopped up happily and pulled Kurt into a tight hug, he returned it gingerly then a baffled look crossed his features.

"Are you not wearing a bra?"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The next day Santana found herself at her desk, laying her head on the cold hard surface across from Puck who was doing the same. They both looked like they had been to hell and back. Puck had a hangover that was threatening to kill him and on top of it all, he was still a little drunk. Santana was worn out from lack of sleep and raging hormones, her skin was still buzzing from the brief contact of the previous night, every nerve ending was on fire and it was driving her insane.

They were both trying their best to appear nonchalant and succeeding only at looking like they had given up on life. Out of the corner of her eye, Santana noticed Quinn arrive and immediately pretended to be busy as she walked by. Luckily her Sergeant had only anticipated Puck's incapacitated state and approached him with a stack of papers she slammed on his desk, making him grab his head in pain.

"Fuck!" he yelled.

"You were supposed to fill out all this a month ago and since you are just sitting around, clearly you have time to deal with it."

After Quinn stormed off, she surfed the internet for things that would look relevant to police work to onlookers, killed a little time in the break room, then left to roam the streets in her squad car, not paying the slightest bit of attention to what was going on around her. Her thoughts were with Brittany and all the things that hadn't happened last night. On one hand, she regretted the outcome but on the other, she didn't want their first time to be in the back seat of her car at a drive-in movie. That was tawdry, in a 70's teen movie kind of way. Of course she wasn't about to go to the other extreme of candles and satin sheets, she just wanted something in the middle. Then there was the inevitable discomfort that would be inherent in their next interaction if she invited Brittany to her house, with the events of their last encounter lingering in both of their minds. Also bearing down on her was the time limit; she had promised to invite her over soon.

"Why is Berry never around when I need a distraction," she grumbled to herself, "Why does this whole thing have to be so fucking complicated!"

"Seriously? I thought you were quieter than this!" came a voice from somewhere behind her.

In a panic, she slammed on her breaks and was rewarded with the sound of someone sliding off the back seat onto the floor. She turned around to see Puck face down in the back of her squad car, she wasn't sure if she was more annoyed at him being back there or herself for not noticing sooner.

He cursed as he climbed back up into the seat and looked at her blearily, "I really should have just called in sick."

"What the hell are you doing in my car Noah?"

"Trying to get away from Quinn and her stupid paper work," he said swaying a little.

"Don't throw up in my car," Santana warned, noting his greyish pallor.

"Nothing left to throw," he said, leaning his head on the plastic barrier between the back and front seats.

She started driving again and pulled into the first coffee shop she came to. With quite a bit of effort, she hauled him out of her car and inside where they both got a cup of bitter, awful, liquid refreshment and took a seat at a booth by the window overlooking the streets.

Puck seemed to almost pass out at the aroma, as he took a long sniff before he took a sip, "That's what I am talking about," he said almost sensually.

"Finn know where you are?" she asked as she began ritualistically dumping the contents of the available sugar packets into her cup.

"I'm sure he can guess, it wouldn't be the first time he's cruised alone. We're cool enough to cover for each other."

"Really? Even after what happened with Quinn?"

"Especially after what happened with Quinn. Besides it was you who broke them up not me."

She was going to argue the point but was far too tired. She had merely told Finn what he had been too stupid to figure out on his own, Puck had been the one to do the actual cheating with his best friends wife. However if they were over that, what was the point of debate.

"Whatever," she said, taking a long swig of her extremely sweet coffee.

"So what happened with that hot lady I've been hearing about?" Puck asked.

"Don't even want to talk about it."

"Don't tell me you didn't get lucky?"

"Worse, I almost did then managed to ruin it."

"But you are second only to me in lady wooing, how in the world-"

"Don't. Want. To talk. About it," she said slowly and deliberately.

"Fine my head hurts too much to force you."

"Damn right."

"You do know I will find out at some point," he said looking lazily out the window.

She took a deep calming breath, "We were in my car making out and were well on our way to other things, when I asked her about a bullet wound on her chest that brought up memories of a mugging that she recently experienced. Here's some extra knowledge, a friend of hers was with her and he either died or got it worse than she did, I know this cause I was also stupid enough to ask about it."

Puck was now looking at her with his mouth hanging open, "Are you fucking with me? You asked about old wounds? Never do that! That's players handbook 101."

"I wasn't trying to play her," she said miserably, letting her head flop onto the table.

"Dammit Santana, you fucked up my dream."

She looked at him confused, "What dream?"

"Two hot chicks getting down in a 1967 Dodge Charger man."

She snorted, "For a hot minute that was my dream too," she said, and tried to close her eyes and focus on something other than the feelings telling that story brought.

"I guess you really are serious about this chick then."

"Yep."

"So maybe you should ask her to move in with you or something."

From time to time she forgot that Puck was actually worse at forming long term relationships than she was, at times like these she was reminded and then some.

"I need to take it slow here, I just don't know how to keep from making things uncomfortable."

He thought for a moment, "When she comes over, just throw her down on the bed and bang her, then the deed will be done and you can both move on to the next stage."

"I see why you keep getting sued."

"No, I mean not in a rapist kind of way but you know in a hot romantic way."

"Dominate her? That'll be tough cause last night she was…" Santana stopped herself before she said too much but it was too late, Puck's face had lit up.

"Don't tell me Santana Lopez was demoted to Pillow Queen?"

"Shut up Puck," she grumbled and drank more coffee.

"Okay, okay I won't ride you about this, you know, like your new girlfriend clearly did." Her glare made him move on, "For real you should get it out of the way."

"I will take that under advisement."

"The only other thing there is to do, is to talk it out but clearly you are bad at that."

She would have argued but it was true, "I can't just drag her in the door and shove her in the bedroom and I really think just talking is a terrible idea. I need something that's in the middle of all that. "

He looked at her like she was growing a second head, "You mean talk during sex?"

Santana rolled her eyes and stared out at the city through the glass, she had no idea what she was going to do, but it seemed her best bet was to take Puck's advice and do the opposite.

* * *

><p>Rachel's absence continued to plague Santana with ample time to roam in her own mind. Second and third guessing her every move until eventually it was time for her partner to return and that knowledge made it blazingly clear how much time had been wasted worrying. Finally she called Brittany and invited her over for dinner.<p>

Time seemed to go in reverse as she waited but eventually her doorbell rang and she tried not to run to the door. She opened it to see Brittany wearing a long black dress that fit her form perfectly and her hair was up showing off the eyes Santana couldn't stop thinking about.

Brittany took one step inside and gave her a greeting kiss, "I thought you were going to break your promise."

"Not a chance," her voice was not as smooth as she had intended it to be.

With almost childlike exuberance Brittany examined her house in awe, "This place is beautiful!"

"It's home," she said modestly.

She moved through the living room, dining room and finally ended up in the kitchen, where she looked over the food that was prepared, "Spaghetti! I love spaghetti!"

Santana felt relieved, she had spent the better part of a day trying to work out what to make for Brittany, only to conclude that with her simpler was better.

"I'm glad you like it," she said then paused, not sure if she wanted to say what she had planned to, then she decided to stop being so afraid, "I want to tell you something."

"What?" Brittany asked, her large blue eyes fixing on Santana's brown ones.

"I am really bad at being a girlfriend, or at least I get told that by everyone I have ever dated. I don't want to mess up with you, but I feel like I keep doing it anyway, I literally have no idea what a functioning couple even does on a date like this."

Brittany giggled and moved very close, "You really are the sweetest person."

Santana once again marveled at being called that, before she found that Brittany was kissing her again but this time not as a greeting. There was a moment where she fought between wanting to continue where they previously left off and wanting to eat because she was hungry, but the battle was quite short. The final blow may have come when Brittany's hand slid underneath her shirt and began to push underneath her bra.

Then, for no reason Santana could conceive, there was a knock at the door.

Brittany turned her head at the noise but Santana was fully prepared to ignore it and the person causing it. She pulled the blonde back into their embrace and everything was progressing smoothly until the knock came again, this time much louder.

Before she could stop her, Brittany pulled away and dashed to the door, "You never know San, it could be a leprechaun."

Santana did NOT ask why in the hell a leprechaun would bother knocking on her door, assuming such a thing existed and followed her to the front with a murder glare ready for whoever had interrupted them.

Brittany had been right. It was Rachel.

"Hello!" Brittany greeted happily and Rachel stared back at her a bit confused.

"Hi, is Santana here?"

"Yes!" she said helpfully opening the door wider to show the raging thunder storm that was Santana.

Rachel took a step inside even though with every passing moment her partner seemed to become more furious, "Um, I'm sorry to bust in on you again, but I really need to talk to you."

A train would have moved more quietly as Santana marched over to her, grabbed her arm and hauled her into the living room, "This better be beyond important Berry," she hissed.

Rachel sat on the couch and suddenly looked bashful and unwilling to speak, "I was wondering if… you know… you ever…"

"Spit it out."

"Why do you hate Quinn?"

Santana's eyes darted to her stereo system where she knew a baseball bat was concealed, she seriously contemplated retrieving it, but decided to figure out why this question couldn't have been asked over the phone, or better yet the next day.

"Because she is an absolute cunt."

"But why? What did she do?"

"Rachel, I am kind of in the middle of something and as amusing and fascinating as I find your interest in Ms. Fabray, I would really like to get back to my date."

"I know but…" Rachel started, a pleading look on her face.

"San can't she eat with us for a little? She seems kind of lonely," Brittany said as she walked into the room.

Immediately Santana knew she was in trouble in this relationship when she found it impossible to say no to Brittany's pouting face, "Sure," she grumbled.

"No I couldn't," said Rachel standing, " I doubt Santana cooks meat free and I'm a vegetarian."

"A what?" Brittany said confused.

Rachel seemed taken aback by her confusion, "A vegetarian. I don't eat meat, for my health and my love of animals."

"What do you eat then?"

There was a long pause as she tried to ascertain if Brittany was joking, "Fruits, vegetables and things like that."

"But if you love animals so much why are you eating all of their food?"

Now Rachel shot Santana an 'Is she insane?' look, Santana just shook her head noncommittally and walked into the kitchen to prepare a meal for three.

As the night progressed, Santana sat quietly glaring hateful daggers at Rachel as she tried to explain vegetarianism to Brittany, who was slowly grasping the concept. She moved on to trying to explain veganism but that was a lost cause.

"What do you do if you really, really, really want a steak?"

"You don't eat it," Rachel said almost in awe of Brittany's lack of understanding.

"I don't get it. So Rachel why are you so sad?"

Santana looked the small woman over and realized that she was right, Rachel looked miserable. In the midst of wishing she would spontaneously combust, she hadn't noticed how harassed she looked.

"I messed up, at work."

Santana wanted to flip the table, but patience and her love of having a table kept her from doing so, "You can't keep beating yourself up over this."

"It's not that…" then she seemed to lose the nerve to say what she wanted to say, "I'm sorry for interrupting your evening, I should go, thanks for the food," she said and quite suddenly left.

In the silence that followed her sudden departure, Santana stared at the area she had just occupied, at any other time she would have chased her down and demanded to know what the hell that had been all about, but Brittany was there and leaving did not appeal to her in the slightest.

"I think she's nice," Brittany said as she finished her food.

"You haven't really gotten to know her, she's usually more chatty than that," she said collecting their plates.

Brittany followed her at a lazy pace, "You aren't expecting any more company are you?"

"Huh? No I wasn't even expecting her," she said dropping the dishes into the sink.

When she turned she found Brittany leaning against the door frame, "Good because I really want to fuck you," she said in a voice that sent shivers down her spine.

Santana wasn't really sure who made the first move after that, how they got to her bedroom or when exactly she had been stripped down to nothing but her underwear. Nor did she know how she had let Brittany pin her to the bed, not that she was in any state to complain about it as the blonde's tongue slid from her neck too her abdomen. Reaching her hips Brittany made short work of the thin article of clothing between her and her goal almost ripping them off and flinging the flimsy piece of fabric carelessly off the bed. She positioned herself between Santana's legs grinning down at her before moving to make contact with the sensitive flesh there. Santana had to clench her jaw not to yelp like some sort of inexperienced teenager, however once Brittany's tongue came into the equation, her ability to keep herself quiet vanished. She was outright embarrassed by the sounds she was involuntarily making. There was no denying Brittany knew exactly what to do to get the responses she wanted and she wanted Santana to sound like a shrieking banshee. Her hands in Brittany's long hair, back off the bed and mouth emitting sounds she never knew were within her vocal range Santana reached a powerful and much needed climax.

Brittany sat up looking at her, those blue eyes almost boring a hole into her as she unashamedly licked her lips. Slowly planting kisses along the way, Brittany moved back up her body, her hair had completely come out of its clasp and now curtained Santana's face leaving her staring only into her bright eyes. Under her gaze she felt completely exposed; it was comforting and disconcerting at the same time.

She brushed the long strands back before she kissed her deeply, this was the first time she had ever tasted herself on another person and though it was incredibly arousing, she wasn't sure if she agreed with Brittany's assessment of it, however Brittany thought a lot of things Santana didn't get.

Laying there under the taller woman, Puck's earlier crack about her being submissive rang through her head and she had to admit that it did seem to be the case when she was with Brittany. Deciding to change that she forcefully flipped the other woman onto her back and smiled deviously at the look of surprise on her face.

Santana ran her hands up Brittany's long legs past her waist and up her sides, pushing her dress up as she went. Brittany allowed her to pull it off completely, as well as all of her under garments giving Santana an unobstructed view of her body. The scar, still visible in the low light of the room, somehow didn't mar the beauty of her body. Santana kissed it gently before she moved her hands down and between her thighs teasing the area with light fingers. Brittany squirmed under her, looking quite hot and bothered.

"San please…" she whined.

A smile spread over her face as she slid one finger inside her knowing it would be maddeningly insufficient, "Is this what you wanted?"

"You're evil," she whimpered as Santana slowly moved the digit in small circles.

"I thought I was sweet," she laughed.

"Not right now."

Santana laughed again and added two more fingers at a rough pace, the reaction was instant and almost frightening as Brittany grabbed her powerfully and she could feel the other woman's nails biting into her back. Santana was quite certain that if she hadn't spent so much time working out she would have been crushed. Brittany began to move her hips in rhythm with her strokes, and Santana soon found she did not share her compulsion to remain quiet. Her every movement elicited an uninhibited moan or squeal of approval and as she began to add the expert ministrations of her thumb, Brittany placed passionate kisses on her neck letting Santana feel the sounds of her pleasure ripple through her body. Even in the decidedly raw act of sex she still moved like a dancer, it was almost poetic the way her abdomen rippled, well toned muscles dancing under soft skin at an ever quickening speed. The sounds of her screams intensified until she felt Brittany's body clench tightly around her and her grip became even stronger pulling Santana directly on top of her. She continued to move her hand leisurely as her lover continued to bask in the glow of her orgasm.

When Brittany returned to earth, she released Santana and curled up next to her giving her a soft leisurely kiss. Santana watched her lay beside her and drift off to sleep with a smile, feeling like she had arrived at a destination she had been walking towards for years.

The next morning Santana woke with a jerk, she looked over at her clock by the bed, relaxed a little and settled back down. She had plenty of time to get to work and she was not in a rush to see Rachel again after being free of her for so long. Lazily she turned over and saw Brittany laying on her stomach, half falling off the bed still fast asleep. She smiled warmly at the sight of her half wrapped in her sheets with her golden hair spread all over her face and back. Between the strands of hair she noticed something on her back; the other scar. She brushed the hair aside and looked at what was clearly the entry wound, the angle suggested her attacker had blasted a hole through her, barely missing her heart. It was probably best she had no idea who had done this because she had a strong urge to abuse her position in a very real way on them.

The better part of her morning was spent just looking at Brittany and feeling silly for doing so, but soon she knew she had to get up and with a reluctant groan she did. She moved quietly around the bedroom to grab some clothes and slid into the bathroom. After a quick shower, she dressed and took a brief moment to apply a modest amount of makeup and check her overall appearance. When she saw herself in the mirror she gasped.

There were about three hickies sitting well above the neckline of her shirt and she had no recollection of when they were made. She grabbed her makeup kit and several coats of concealer later, she looked like a person who had gone out of their way to hide something with makeup. Knowing there was nothing more she could do about that, she left the bathroom and stood in the middle of the bedroom trying to decide how to proceed.

Normally she would tell whoever happened to occupy her bed that it was time to get the hell on. Brittany was different but she wasn't sure what it was she should be doing, leaving and letting her sleep or waking her to say goodbye.

Deciding on the latter, she knelt next to her and rubbed her back gently until her eyes fluttered open, "Hey, I'm leaving for work, you can stay as long as you want."

She smiled sleepily and rubbed her eyes, "When will you be back?"

"Assuming nothing crazy happens, about eight thirty, nine."

"Okay."

Santana kissed her goodbye, stood and left the house feeling oddly content knowing she was there and couldn't help but want her to still be there when she got back.

* * *

><p>By the time she arrived at work the building was alive with belligerent criminals, ringing phones and her co-worker's enthusiastic greetings. On her way to the locker room Rachel fell in step next to her, she was just about to ask her what in the hell had been up with her the previous night but Quinn appeared from around a corner with a look that said she was going to demanded their attention.<p>

"Officer Lopez on time for once, we should throw a party."

"I'm not on the clock yet Quinn. What do you want?"

"On or off the clock I am still your Sergeant," she said acidly.

"And as my Sergeant, what do you want?"

"I don't want anything, the Lieutenant wants to see you ASAP."

"Great."

"If you see Officer Berry, tell her I need to see her in my office."

"Tell her yourself she's right…" she looked to her left to see no one was there.

She spun in a quick circle, trying to figure out where the smaller woman had gone; there was nothing to see. Quinn gave her an odd look before she shook her head and vanished back around the corner she had come from. Bemused, Santana continued towards the locker room only to find that after three steps Rachel was back at her side.

"Where in the hell did you go?"

"What? When?"

"Just now when I was talking to Quinn."

"I dropped something, went to go get it," she said quickly.

She pushed the door to the locker room as she looked back at her partner accusingly, "Are you dodging Quinn? Is that why you showed up at my house last night asking about her?"

A worried look crossed her face, "No, I am not dodging her, I merely wanted to ask you some questions about her but it's irrelevant now."

Santana pulled her shirt off and reached in her locker for her uniform, "You could have done that over the phone. You were panicking."

"Uh, Santana," she said leaning back slightly while looking at her worriedly, "What happened to your back?"

A look into the mirror on the far wall of the room showed a flurry of red stripped claw marks covering her back, "That is exactly what it looks like."

"It looks like two alley cats fought to the death… and they both lost," she said slowly.

Santana sighed and pulled on her bullet proof vest over her white wife beater, "I had a productive night despite your interruption."

Rachel, who had also begun to change, went pale with the realization, "Well I'm glad I didn't ruin your evening. She seemed nice, the girl you're seeing, kind of slow though."

"This is why I hate it when you talk," she snapped as she changed pants.

"Not to say she isn't smart in some sense, she just strikes me as someone who has a hard time with basic concepts."

Santana ground her teeth together, slammed her locker shut and marched towards the door, "By the way Quinn wants you in her office, I suggest you go before I go get my gun and end you."

After putting intense fear in the brunette, she grudgingly headed for Sue's office. She knocked on the door and when she heard a brash 'Come in,' she opened the door and took the first available seat.

"Good morning officer," she said politely.

Santana internally winced, kindness in any form from Sue meant bad things were to follow, it was inevitable, "Good morning Lieutenant."

"So Santana, I have spent the past few days looking over this Rachel Berry incident. After all that reading, I find myself wondering what in the hell is wrong with you?"

"Me?" she asked stunned.

"Yes you, Rachel has been your partner for a little under three months and you have never handled a situation like this together before. Instead of waiting for your partner to get out of the car, you begin to engage the perpetrators, then when she makes a rookie mistake and takes off after one of them, YOU make the equally stupid mistake of not informing the arriving officers of the situation. Hell you didn't even wait for them to secure the weapons laying on the ground."

"I admit I should have waited for them to get all the kids in handcuffs but Rachel is my partner, and despite how much I wish she would fall to the bottom of a deep dark well, break both her legs and starve to death, I wasn't about to let her handle a situation she wasn't even slightly ready for alone."

Sue leaned back heavily in her chair, "You have been my number one star student for a long time and I want to make sure you continue to be, so I have made an appointment for you to see Dr. Pillsbury."

"What? But I have another week and a half before I have to go."

"The NoriSouth operation was an utter failure because it was a desperate long shot and the NoriNorth operation is shaping up to be the same. You are my go to girl on this, you are the one, out of all available officers, with the best track record for breaking cases. This shit that happened with Rachel, it makes me nervous about you. Now I know seeing Emma is like having a wino piss blood into your mouth while you sleep, but at least prove to me you are stable enough to trick her into thinking you're fine, even if you're not."

"But-"

"You are dismissed," when Santana continued to look at her with a lost expression she added, "Get the hell out of my office Lopez."

She did as she was told and closed the door behind her, feeling only the worst sort of animosity for Rachel. Luckily her partner didn't make an appearance as she made her way to her desk. When she sat down, two new arrivals moved in on her.

"S'up Lopez," Puck said, dropping his things off at his desk and walking over to hers.

He was followed by Finn who nodded his greeting.

"Nothing of any interest to you," she sighed.

Puck stared at her intently for a moment then leaned close and sniffed her, Santana swatted him away angrily, "What the hell Puck?"

"You smell like soap, perfume, and a lot of makeup. The only reason anyone puts on that much makeup is to cover a bruise or more specifically, in your case, a hickie."

Finn looked dubious, "Is that really surprising?"

She rubbed her forehead in aggravation, "If you showed half as much interest in solving the cases here, you would be Commissioner by now you know."

"Don't change the subject, you nailed your dream girl, details."

"None of your damn business."

"Man, you are really stuck on this woman! Santana keeping the details of a hot night out private?"

"I think it's nice of you," Finn chimed.

"Dude, nice has no place amongst friends in regards to what is clearly a great sex story."

"Are you talking about the scratches all over her back? Because those need to be tended too," Rachel said casually as she approached.

If looks could kill, Santana would have vaporized Rachel and anyone standing behind her, "You big mouthed jackass," she growled.

Puck turned to the brunette, "You saw?"

"In the locker room, not a more private setting," she clarified.

"Berry! Shut up!"

"No, Berry continue," Puck said smoothly.

Only now understanding that she had said more than Santana had wanted her to, she clasped her hands together nervously, "But I don't know what they were from, could have been a rose bush."

Finn chuckled, "Nice save."

"Sylvester is already sending me to Dr. Pillsbury who is going to be down my back to talk about everything I hate talking about, I am just not in a sharing mood today and that includes last night."

"Whoa what are you getting sent to Dr. FeelBad for?"

"Because of the incident last week," she said looking right at Rachel.

"Surely she doesn't think you're upset about the boy that died?"

"No. She's mainly pissed I left you two, to save her."

Rachel had the decency to look upset about this, "I'm sorry."

Puck shrugged, "What's the big deal? We handled it."

"I still have to go."

"Ah, completely unoccupied as usual I see," came Quinn's calm condescending voice.

The Sergeant approached holding a daunting stack of files, Puck dashed to his desk to look busy and Finn did the same. Santana had no idea what Rachel did as she was already somehow gone by the time she had heard Quinn. After considering Puck and Finn for a moment, she continued to Santana and set the stack on her desk.

"These need to be filed with city records."

Santana glared at the stack, "So take them to city records, that's not my job."

"Your job is to do what I tell you."

"Why?" she asked, her tone made it clear that she meant 'Why do you feel the need to torment me?'

"Because you failed to deliver my message to Officer Berry."

"I did! And even if I hadn't, I've only been here like half an hour!"

"When I tell you to do something, you need to get it done. Like these files," she said calmly and walked away.

Santana flipped her the finger and slouched in her chair, then suddenly Rachel was by her desk, "Where the hell were you?"

The small woman looked like a child who was afraid to tell a parent about a broken vase, "I forgot something in my car."

Santana stood and got in her face, "I'm going to see my idiot psychiatrist now and you are going to take those files to Records. Why? Because, as I'm sure you heard when you were hiding wherever you were hiding, I only have to do it because of you!"

"Alright," she raised her hands in a conciliatory gesture , "All I have to do is walk these down to city records? That's like a block from here right?"

"Yes. Be sure to turn them in to the department head," with a final glare, she turned and marched off.

Before she could leave, Rachel asked one more question, "Wait, who is the department head?"

Without turning around she replied, "Mercedes Jones."

* * *

><p>"Let's talk about Rachel now," said Dr. Pillsbury.<p>

Santana sank into the couch cushion with a scowl on her face, she had been talking for over an hour about every blasted detail from the shooting and had been quite over the whole thing two minutes in. Now she wanted to switch topics to even more unpleasant things.

"Can we for once just end this early?"

As per usual, Emma ignored that, "How have you two been? Any progress?"

"I guess, she shows up at my house at insane hours wanting to talk."

"That's great! She must really trust you."

"No, I think I'm all she has, which is sad. She came crying to me the night after she shot the boy and again last night in the middle of my date…" she realized she messed up a fraction of a second too late.

"You were on a date?" Emma asked, her round eyes widening.

"Let's stay on topic we were talking about Rachel."

"This is the first time I have ever heard you mention a date."

"It is so not even relevant to this conversation."

"Santana, you going on a date is pretty major, in the two years you have been seeing me, I have never heard the word date come out of your mouth without being followed by something negative."

She could not fathom why no one could keep out of her personal life lately. When she was willing to share, everyone had other shit to do but the moment they detect a need for privacy, they had to know everything. In this case however, Emma had always been rather nosy about her home life.

In the interest of getting out the door faster, she gave up trying to dodge the issue, "I met someone, she seemed nice, we went out a couple of times and you know… whatever."

"So you went out with her more than once? Is she your girlfriend?"

"I don't know," she said honestly, "We haven't talked about that."

"Do you want her to be?"

"It doesn't matter either way," she lied.

"I think it's wonderful that there is someone who made you want to make the effort to see them again."

"Super. Can I go now?"

"Not yet, back to Rachel," Santana gave a strangled scream, "She came over to your house last night? What about?"

"I have no idea, she was asking me something about Quinn and today she's been dodging her so more than likely she broke some rule that literally no one cares about and she's afraid Quinn already knows or something."

"You should make it a point to find out what it was that was so important to her."

"I'll do that," another lie.

"Now we are going to try an exercise where you tell me only positive things about Rachel. I think keeping them in mind will make you more appreciative of her."

Santana felt a migraine forming and the pain was getting stronger by the second.

* * *

><p>Rachel stood, feeling like for the first time in her adult life she was going to break down and cry in front of strangers. She stood at the records office in front of Mercedes Jones who was, for the tenth time, not taking the files that were weighing down her arms. When she had first arrived and tried to drop them off, Mercedes told her to go back to the precinct and store them in their records department, she had and they told her that they were full and the building she had just left was for overflow. Returning she relayed this message, to be told to go back and tell them to take them anyway, to be sent back to Mercedes telling her to do her job. It had continued back and forth like that until the precinct's office told her not to come back and slammed the door shut on her. Leaving nowhere else to go but Mercedes who was even now looking down at her from her position behind the raised counter like she was an ant.<p>

"Listen Lily."

"I told you my name is Rachel," she said hopelessly, Mercedes kept calling her that for some reason.

"And I told you, we are backed up. Do you see that?" she asked pointing to an obvious wall of files on the far wall behind her.

"Yes," Rachel said unnecessarily.

"That is about ten percent of the work we have yet to get to and all of it has to be processed, verified and then typed into our system. Your precinct is the main reason for this. I swear if I have to input another file with Puckerman's name on it…"

"I understand your plight but please understand mine, our department flat out won't take these because they are full, leaving only you. I can't keep them," she shuffled the files in her arms as they started to get too weak to keep holding on.

"You're going to have to hold off until my team can get this mess under control. Your department too full? Help them clear it out."

"Ms. Jones please, I really need to give these to the proper authority. Couldn't you just take it and store it somewhere?"

Mercedes' eyes drifted to the wall of files, "I just keep files out in the open stacked against the wall so people know this is the records department right when they walk in the door, that's what it is. I really do have like ten free filing cabinets but I'm hiding them from you," she said with a straight face.

"Is there any way I could get you to take these?" she said not knowing what else to do.

Looking at her pathetic bedraggled appearance Mercedes' face softened slightly, "Look I run a department here, it isn't about not wanting to take them from you, it's about my staff who will see it and realize I have just added another month to the monster pile of crap we have to get done by the end of the year. We are working full tilt and barely keeping up."

Rachel set the files on the ground and looked at them hatefully, "Then I'm screwed. Santana is already pissed enough at me as it is and I said I would do this."

"Santana? Lopez? You know her?"

"She's my partner."

"You poor thing," she said sincerely, "Alright give them here."

Rachel looked up hopefully, "Really?"

"Yes really, we'll get it done somehow."

She scooped up the stack and with a great effort lifted it up onto the counter. Mercedes carried them expertly to the wall of files and placed it at the back.

"Thank you!" Rachel said excitedly.

Mercedes walked back and shook her head slightly, "No problem, I know how it can be to deal with Santana."

"You do?"

"I used to work the beat, but I got fed up with all the running around and training camps, never mind the gunfights. I just want a steady salary and to keep my hair looking nice."

Rachel nodded, her hair did look nice, "Thanks again, you saved my life."

"You're welcome Lily."

For a moment Rachel considered correcting her, but since she had helped so much, she didn't care what Mercedes called her.

* * *

><p>After her visit with Dr. Pillsbury, Santana couldn't help but think about Brittany and what their being together made them. Sex didn't make them girlfriends, although she suspected them admitting their feelings to each other in her car, made them… something. Through it all she couldn't help but be excited at the idea that she might still be there when she got home, although she wasn't going to get her hopes too high.<p>

She left her desk and went on a search for Rachel so they could start patrolling, when the very person she was looking for zoomed past her grabbing her arm as she went. Yanked suddenly in the other direction, Santana stumbled after her.

"Slow down Berry! Who lit your ass on fire?"

Rachel uncharacteristically said nothing and rushed them both to their squad car. Santana got in, wondering whether to lay into her about dragging her around but decided against it.

"I sent the files to records like you asked," she said the moment Santana closed the door.

She started up the car and pulled onto the road, "The blimp let you drop them off? Maybe you talked so much she was willing to trade more work for you shutting up."

"I will have you know Ms. Jones was very nice to me."

She laughed, "I doubt that."

"She did keep forgetting my name and calling me Lily."

"That was her polite way of calling you white. Lily white."

"I doubt it, lilies come in an assortment of colors."

"White is one of them."

"White isn't a color."

"And my fist isn't a dentist, but it can still take your teeth out."

"You don't have to threaten me all the time," she mumbled.

"So now that you have nowhere to vanish to, why don't you tell me what was so important last night."

Rachel turned several interesting colors, "It's fine now, I was able to resolve the issue."

That was fair, Rachel didn't want to talk about it and Santana didn't want to listen, it all worked out, "Fine."

"I am really sorry about interrupting your date and for getting you in so much trouble."

"I'm not really in trouble so much as getting attention from people I hate."

"It won't happen ever again, me running off and leaving you alone. I was a total idiot for that."

"Good to know."

"If it makes you feel better, if anything happens to you in the line of duty I am…well not a doctor, but I went to school to be one for a while."

"What?"

"I mean I could patch you up. I was going to be a doctor originally, but after a while I couldn't afford it."

"What about your dads? Couldn't they help?"

"Yes actually, but I want to make my way on my own and I have been most insistent on that. Whatever job I choose I want to pull myself through."

"I guess that's noble or something. Though if I were you I would take the money."

Rachel shook her head, "For me, their support is all I need. I would have been in bad trouble these past few days if they hadn't stayed with me."

All of a sudden Santana felt very bad about kicking her out of her house, "I wish I could have been more help," she said.

Rachel smiled that I'm About to Talk A Lot smile and Santana's face twisted in pain knowing what was coming next.

* * *

><p>At the end of the day, Santana found herself driving faster than was ever necessary to get home, she pulled into the driveway and almost sprinted inside. When she opened the door, she made sure to do so without appearing too eager. The lights were all off and as she skimmed the house she found it empty. A little disappointed, she walked into the kitchen threw down her keys, opened her refrigerator, grabbed a beer and strolled into the living room. When she turned on the light she froze in shock; Brittany was sleeping on the couch wearing a pair of her sweatpants and one of her shirts that was too small yet pleasantly tight. Santana stood staring at her for a long moment before she went to her side, looking at her as if she might be imaginary.<p>

"Britney?" she said softly, when the other woman didn't stir she raised her voice a little, "Britney!"

"Existential plastic extra nightly cow!" she shouted confusedly.

"…what?"

"Santana!" she leapt off the couch and hugged her tightly, "I missed you."

"I missed you too," she replied sincerely, "What did you do all day? You must have been bored."

She shook her head, "I played outside with the puppy most of the day."

Santana frowned, "I don't have a dog."

"I know, he came under the fence."

The only neighborhood dog she knew of belonged to her neighbor, Ken Tanaka. It was a big unruly Pit bull that would terrorize anyone and everyone whenever he got loose. If Brittany had played with it all day and wasn't dead, that was quite amazing.

"Um, if you see him again it might be safest if you stay inside."

"Aww but he was so cute," she said glancing through the sliding glass door to the yard beyond as if the dog were still there.

"Listen Britney, I have an assignment I have to go on later this week, I'll be gone for two days. It's not a big deal I just want you to know what's going on with me."

Her eyes lit up, "That's perfect because my roommates and I are going on a trip too."

"Where are you going?"

"Camping I think."

"You think?"

"No one ever tells me what the plan is until we're on the road." She said dejectedly, "It can make things kind of scary."

"You should tell them to trust you more."

"I don't think they don't trust me, they are just too busy arguing about stuff until it finally gets settled on the way there."

"I see. Um, do... you want to stay the night again?" she asked eyeing Brittany's ensemble.

"Yeah, but I can't cause I know everyone is already really mad I was gone so long, even though I called."

"Maybe you shouldn't let them tell you what to do so much," she said carefully, she didn't know much about these people but from what she heard so far they seemed to take advantage of her.

"Normally it wouldn't be a problem, but like I said I am kind of keeping it a secret that I'm dating anyone cause they'd know it's you and they would get really mad if they knew my girlfriend was a cop."

She was going to say something about her even having to hide that fact in the first place, the thought was eclipsed by the juvenile feeling of joy from being referred to as her girlfriend.

"Let me at least drive you home."

"Sure, but later. I kind of just want to be here with you right now if that's alright."

Santana sat down on the couch, "I would love that," she said extending her arm.

Brittany curled up in her lap watching as she grabbed the TV controller and flipped through the channels. She wondered how long Santana would be able to keep her hands to herself if she were to stretch out and take a deep breath pushing the small shirt she was wearing to it's limits. The answer was not long at all.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The day of their pointless existence at NoriTech North arrived and Santana was flat out irritated. She wanted to pretend that it was because it was absurd to try and test their memory for random faces a month out, or because she was going to have to travel a great distance with Berry, even in the company of others. Really, it was about Brittany.

She realized how weird it was to miss someone so intensely when they had only known each other for about a month, yet she did. The other woman had grown on her in a serious way and she wasn't even slightly resistant to it, everyone kept rattling on about how love was a good thing so why not enjoy it? Besides everything else, Brittany made her feel safe, unlike every other woman she had ever attempted to date or sleep with. She felt like Brittany would never trample on her feelings because she was a good person at her core. Even if she was a little odd sometimes.

Santana harbored these feelings of frustration as she searched the building for Rachel so they could get ready to go. They were taking one of the precincts vans that Santana thought looked suspicious _because_ of how nondescript it was. She, Sam, Puck and Mike had already loaded their bags into the back yet Rachel, Ms. Early Bird, was nowhere to be seen. She walked aimlessly through the halls and into an area where there were classrooms for seminars, not that she expected to find anything but she had already searched every place that made sense and Rachel was not answering her phone. Spinning on her heels when she reached the end of the hall she started back at a faster clip then stopped, she had just seen something she couldn't have seen. Backpedaling silently, she looked in the door of the second to last room and confirmed that she had indeed seen what she had never really believed to be true.

Rachel was currently in the dark room pressed against a desk writhing in the arms of Quinn Fabray who had peeled her shirt back and was currently ravishing every exposed part of her. Rachel would try to move her hands but Quinn kept them trapped behind her wrapped in the sleeves of her blouse leaving the smaller woman groaning in excitement and frustration. If it hadn't been two contenders for people she would like to club with a baseball bat, she would have found the whole thing incredibly hot.

Given that they had a mission to do, and Santana's natural urge to embarrass the shit out of people who annoyed her, she noisily kicked the door all the way open.

Rachel, in one lightning fast move, leapt out of Quinn's grasp and pulled her blouse back around her shoulders. Quinn looked at Santana in a way she felt had to be similar to how she had looked at Rachel when she had interrupted her with Brittany.

"So it's past time to load your crap in the van," she said casually, but not without a wide grin on her face.

"Right," Rachel said quickly and dashed out of the door so fast she almost knocked Santana down.

Once she left, Quinn tucked her shirt into her skirt, "It's only four thirty we leave at five."

"I know. Van loading time is now."

"Santana don't give her a hard time about this," Quinn said seriously.

"Her?" she snickered, "I am a bit more surprised you switched teams."

"Who said I switched, I'm the exact same person I've always been, you have just been too much of a bitch to get to know me any better."

"Way to hide it, in any case."

"I never hid either. Just because I don't flaunt my sexual preferences, doesn't mean I don't have any."

"I'll buy that. So can I assume that this is what pushed Finn over the edge with you? He got to know you better and felt inadequate."

Quinn's eyes narrowed, "No, you started flapping your gums about Puck, then he felt inadequate."

"True, but let's be honest, that was mainly you."

When she exited the room Quinn 'accidentally' slammed her shoulder into Santana, making her stumble back against the wall. Santana found the entire thing too funny to even take offense.

* * *

><p>They left New York early Tuesday morning with Sam driving and arrived in St. Lawrence late the next day with Puck at the wheel. It could have been a much shorter ride but apparently being in a van for long periods of time made the guys have to pee at inconvenient and random intervals. The whole trip there, Rachel had been uncharacteristically quiet, she didn't even prattle on about the van's poor emissions score.<p>

Their hotel, a Marriot, had been booked by Sue long in advance, which was how Santana found herself sharing a room with Rachel. The large towering lobby had a ceiling that rose far into the night sky and all the rooms were built around it so when she stepped out into the hall she could look down into the lobby, up at the sky or across the way at the other rooms. Puck, Mike and Sam were in one of the rooms that were across from her on a lower floor, they had gotten stuck in the same room while Sue made sure Quinn got her own private quarters.

To pass time she hung out in the lobby with the guys drinking beer for a while before she decided to go back to her room. Hope was strong in her that when she walked back in, Rachel would still be too embarrassed to talk.

The brunette was sitting on her bed looking sadly at her hands. At first it seemed like she would indeed remain silent, but apparently that free pass had expired.

"Thank you… for not telling anyone," she said quietly.

Santana conceded this was more tolerable than her endless goody-two-shoes rants, "At least I know why you were freaking out at my house," she said jumping onto her own bed and taking out her phone to start a game of solitaire.

"I didn't know how to ask you what to do. I mean I was sort of embarrassed because I had made such a big deal out of not being attracted to her."

"You did do that."

"And I really did mean it at the time, but after Aden..."

Santana's head swiveled in her direction, "Who?"

Rachel looked miserably at her, "The boy I killed, his name was Aden Baker, and after that had happened I was feeling so… broken and Quinn came…"

"Wait are you talking about when she snapped at you for trying to quit? That is when this started?"

She nodded, "After you left we talked for a long time and… I'm not even sure what happened, but we kissed and I liked it, but then I freaked out. When I came to your house that night I was sort of talking about Aden but I was really talking about Quinn. I did what you said and slept on it but all I did was dream. About Aden, about Quinn, about who I was and who I was becoming and the part that really bothered me was that it had all happened in the span of a day. In the morning I called my dads and told them about what was going on, with Quinn, not Aden, and they sort of talked me through it and told me to go with my heart, but when I think of her I can't tell my heart from my libido. That's why I panicked and showed up at your house again."

"You were trying to get the reason for my opinion of Quinn."

Rachel nodded, "I was just scared to see her again feeling how I did. Since I couldn't rely on my judgment I tried to use yours."

"Failing that, you ducked her at work," Santana filled in.

"I did everything to avoid her, I even took your filing task first to avoid the meeting she wanted with me and I would have dodged it all together, but she found me of course."

A slight chuckle escaped her, "And that was why by the time we went out on patrol you had it 'figured out'."

"Yup," she said clapping her hands together idly.

"Given my past I am literally the last person on earth to tell someone to not be a chicken and love who you want but seriously don't hide, what good is it going to do? At some point everyone else will figure it out and they won't care and you will feel like an idiot for confining yourself so much. You have so many obnoxious qualities, I don't think anyone would make it to the gay thing until you were thirty."

Rachel laughed, "Thanks I think."

"Puck will probably tease you though because that is his calling in life, but don't take him seriously."

"I think I really do love her and it's scary because what I feel is stronger than what I felt for Jesse and he was what I considered to be the great love of my life."

"I know that feeling, not the Jesse part, but about it being scary."

"You're talking about the woman I met at your house? You are in love with her?"

"Totally in love with her."

Rachel smiled, "I knew it. Have you told her?"

"Yes, it's a mutual thing. Have you told Quinn?"

"No," she said her face falling a bit.

"Don't sweat it," she said lightly before giving a mischievous look, "Want me to ask her if she wants to switch rooms?"

"I would like that," she said slowly, "but I think we should cool down for a bit."

"Suit yourself."

Santana set up her phone to be charged, after she sent Brittany a quick good night text. Ready for the next day to come so she could get back home, she put on her pajamas and went to sleep. She drifted off a while after she laid down, falling asleep just in time to be well rested for the next day, but not in time to miss Rachel sneaking out of the room during the night.

* * *

><p>"Tell me you are kidding! Please tell me you are kidding!" Kurt snapped.<p>

He was frozen in the middle of applying her last layer of make-up, shocked by the news that the cop Brittany had promised wouldn't be a problem was now a very big problem. She looked at him through her long fake lashes, making her pout even more powerful.

"She won't be looking for me, she told me she thinks this assignment is stupid and she just plans to relax."

"Britt, this is serious! We are in the final stages of this thing and the one person who could track us all the way back to Femme knows exactly who you are."

Her face fell, "She only knows me by my fake name."

"And your fake name is hardly fake!" he stopped before he began screaming and collected his thoughts, "A wig. A wig and some careful makeup work and we can age you a bit, make you a little harder to spot. Lauren is going to pitch a fit when we have to reprint your ID at this late date."

"Thanks Kurt," she whispered earnestly.

"Look I know you really like this woman but she is a police officer, if she finds out about this…"

"I know, it would make her really sad," she said solemnly.

"And she may put another bullet in you."

"Santana wouldn't do that!"

"You don't know what she'll do if she sees you! Don't be surprised if this blows up in your face and if it does, you may have to shoot first."

"Never," she said harshly, "I will not shoot her."

"I'm not telling you to kill her, you know we don't roll like that but you may have to defend yourself. You are going to have to decide what is more important Brittany, this mission or your girlfriend who you have known for a couple of weeks."

"I can't hurt her Kurt, and what if I accidentally made her like Artie," she said tears filling her eyes, "I couldn't live with that."

He put his hand comfortingly on her cheek, "Don't cry Britt, no one's hurt. Just be really careful because it could come to that."

She nodded trying to compose herself, "I messed up my makeup."

He waved his hand dismissively, "It's fine we're redoing it anyway."

* * *

><p>Of all the people at the benefit, the only people who looked like they were having a good time were the scattered incognito members of the NYPD. The staff was disgruntled as they served nervous employees appetizers as they spoke to bored guests. The party was complete with showcases of research, that was far too advanced for the average investor to even try to comprehend, crappy lounge music, average food, tons of overly wealthy old men draped in far too many young women. Fortunately for Santana they also had an open bar so she had something to do while watching Puck work his magic on the ladies. Eventually, she had to move away from her preferred spot or risk being drunk on the job and unlike Puck it just wasn't her style. Instead she struck up a few pointless conversations and wandered around eventually settling in at an empty table by a large metal object that looked like some sort of death ray. While she observed it trying to discern its real purpose she heard someone sit next to her, it was Quinn.<p>

"Found anything?"

Santana stared at her for almost a full ten seconds, trying to figure out what in the world she would be finding then remembered why she was there in the first place, "Oh. Negative on that."

Quinn sighed rubbing her eyes, "The Lieutenant is going to have a fit."

"Over what? This is fucking stupid. I know she can pull some crazy strings but why bother calling in a favor for this wild goose chase."

Making sure they were not being overheard Quinn leaned in closer, "We all know this, at best, is impossible. She wants to have some part in what goes down because if she is the Lieutenant of the officers that help bring these guys down, she could become Mayor and we could retire. Turns out this is that serious. Besides, what is there to lose? At worst we got a free vacation."

Santana looked around the room, more attentive now, "Why wouldn't she just say that back when we started this thing? I'm sure everyone would have taken it more seriously."

"When has Sylvester ever been upfront about anything ever? She didn't even tell me all this, I had to look it up," she said yawning.

"Late night?" Santana asked suggestively.

"It was," she said unperturbed.

"This place seems way nicer than the first one," Santana said having failed to rile Quinn.

"It is supposed to be, the other building is where they put the extra's that won't fit here."

"You know about this place? Then maybe you can tell me why the fuck they have anti-White House tech at a random company like this."

Her face darkened a little, "I have no idea. That was suspicious to me too but even with all my research, I came up with nothing. It is definitely one of many things that bothers me about this."

They sat watching the room for a while. Santana taking the task seriously for the first time since she had been given the assignment, but it wasn't much good, she couldn't remember anyone from the club she didn't already know.

"Where are our men in black hiding?"

"All over the place actually, most of them are posing as investors and their dates. It's sort of sad because a lot of employees have been wasting their time pitching to them. As a matter of fact Puck is hitting on an agent now."

She looked to see the man talking animatedly with a short woman with close cropped black hair, the woman didn't seem to be too offended by whatever he was proposing.

"That guy is too much sometimes. He managed to talk his way back into Finn's good graces so I suppose nothing is impossible."

"I don't know about that, Finn is the one who tells me every time Puck is overdrinking and will come in with a hangover or try to call in sick. I am kept up to date every time he leaves Finn to patrol alone and I dock his pay accordingly, but I don't think he notices since we take a percentage out for his lawyer fees anyway."

"That makes everything make a lot more sense."

"Crap. I have to go," she said swiftly getting up and making a bee line for Puck who was now trying to escort the agent to the front door, his roguish 'I'm About to Score' face firmly in place.

"Hey what were you guys talking about?" Rachel said, having appeared the moment Quinn left.

Startled Santana almost slipped out of her chair but covered it by pretending to get up anyway, "Nothing much, just how very much you scream when you cum."

Her white face went completely red, "Why would she tell you about that?"

"She didn't but you just admitted to it just the same," Santana laughed.

"You ass!" Rachel snapped.

"Calm down," she said starting to walk around the edges of the room followed by her endlessly embarrassed partner.

"I want you to know that though I did share some personal moment's with you last night I would like you to know that Quinn and I plan to keep our relationship quiet. That includes the sexual parts."

"That may be a problem if you really are a screamer."

She continued to diligently look around the room, but knowing the mission was of great importance didn't make the task any more doable. Rachel continued to linger nearby and chat about non-Quinn related topics, the night grew later and it was about time to call it quits when Santana spotted someone. At first glance she was sure she was mistaken, but a second look told her she knew the person she had seen but she was too far away to identify them.

The look on her face at recognizing someone got Rachel's attention, even though she was in the middle of talking about the various ways the city records employees could have their work load lightened.

"Santana what's wrong?" she asked worriedly.

"It can't be…" her voice was a whisper.

"What?"

Before Rachel could get an answer, Santana moved swiftly and covertly after someone in the crowd, she followed curious as to what had gotten her attention.

Santana moved, with her only focus being the woman with red hair in a yellow cocktail dress. She had seen part of the woman's face for only a second but the moment she had seen her eyes, the feeling in her chest told her there was something wrong. That something was a horrible chilling thought that Santana needed to prove to be a lie as soon as possible.

The woman moved from the crowd to one of the roped off hallways showing her ID to the guards waiting there and Santana followed, not even trying to hide herself, showing her badge in a distracted offhand way to the man trying to block her path. She could hear Rachel chirping something about how they should radio Quinn but she ignored it. The moment she stepped into the hall, the woman took off down the deserted corridor for the emergency exit, and Santana instinctively tore after her.

Rachel watched her partner run at full tilt after a random person, knowing Santana was making the same mistake she had. The right thing to do would be to call for backup and go after her. Rachel could feel the weight of her gun resting in her purse, loaded and ready for action. But she wasn't. The horror of the last time she held her weapon at the ready came back and she was paralyzed. On the inside she was screaming at herself to move, even if she was too scared to go by herself she should at least tell someone what was going on. Then the thought of Santana lying dead like Aden made her muscles move again.

* * *

><p>The sound of her own breath, feet hitting pavement, and the wild beating of her heart was all Santana could perceive besides the figure in front of her that was slowly pulling away. This woman didn't just have longer strides, she was wicked fast. Knowing this, she purposefully sprinted into a side street and pulled a trick she hadn't done in ages. Bracing herself she jumped and caught the edge of a fire escape, pulled herself up and dashed to the top. From her new vantage point, it was easy to spot the woman who was moving at a moderate jog now that she thought she had lost her pursuer. There was a pretty serious downside of hopping roof to roof but she hadn't become the top dog at the NYPD for her love of personal safety. She knew this was the real deal, this was who they were looking for. This person had gone through an emergency exit without setting off the alarms, meaning this escape had been planned. This wasn't the random fleeing of a pick pocket. She also knew this person looked very much like the last person on the planet she wanted to see under these circumstances. That was what drove her recklessly forward. She had to prove herself wrong, even as her brain chanted 'It can't be.' over and over again, it was also piecing together how it could.<p>

Determined to see who it was she was chasing, she relentlessly followed the woman who was so certain she was alone, she had begun to walk. For several blocks Santana jumped across roofs and occasionally, knowing her own limits, scurried back down the fire escapes and snuck amongst the buildings, avoiding civilians as best she could. Her clothes were a mess and her hands looked like she had been trying to give an Indian rug burn to a piece of sandpaper, but her focus was too total to notice.

Then the woman stopped her wandering and walked into a broken down building. Santana, who had been about to dash back to the rooftops, waited a beat before she followed her.

Her heart was deafening now as she moved silently into the building, gun drawn. She knew this was foolish to do alone, but some crazed part of her would not allow reason to come into this until she was able to confirm the identity of the culprit.

The building appeared to have been a car repair shop at some point. It was large, and for the most part empty, except for a bunch of wires leading to one room with the only available light. She saw the woman enter it and stupidly ran after her, kicking the door forcefully as she entered.

Instead of seeing the one slender woman she had chased, she saw the stunned face of a man wearing a grey sweater vest over a pink shirt and gray pants. He was standing next to an Asian woman in an almost Victorian black dress and green streaks in her hair, they had apparently been in the middle of a conversation.

"Hands up," she said firmly, her gun pointed at the man's head.

One stupid mistake too many.

Santana realized her error in not checking the room for other people as a large hand grabbed her wrists tightly and another wrenched the gun out of her hands. She looked up surprised by the power this person had to keep her immobilized so easily and found herself looking at a large woman several inches taller than her, in a Team Jacob t-shirt. This woman was heavy but clearly in shape as Santana found it impossible to get her wrists free.

"Chill," the woman said calmly.

On the contrary Santana lifted her leg and delivered a swift knee to her gut. She expected the large belly to be soft and malleable instead it was hard and immovable.

The woman's small eyes narrowed, "I guess we'll play it your way," she said casually before she threw Santana into the air by her wrists.

There was a brief moment for her to reflect on how she really had earned this, before her face slammed into the ceiling and then she tumbled back to the ground with a dull thud. Her head hit the tiled floor of the old abandoned car repair shop's office and her vision swam and blurred.

Maybe it was an oncoming concussion that caused it but she could have sworn she heard Brittany's voice scream her name. Head splitting she looked over to see the woman she had chased running towards her from the large open area on the other side of the door that she had neglected to check.

Sliding next to her the woman held her close and began to argue heatedly with the people around her. Santana's head felt like a split melon and she wasn't really able to understand what anyone was saying but she knew one thing, one dreadful fact; the woman who she had chased from NoriTech North, the woman who held her now was Brittany.

* * *

><p>Brittany was terrified and had no idea what to do. Kurt had warned her about this but she had been under the impression that some sort of explosion would be involved. Lauren and Tina were really, really mad and Kurt was just looking sad about the whole thing. She was trying to explain herself but no one wanted to hear her. Lauren had tied Santana to a chair and practically thrown her into the big empty garage so she had no idea if she had seen her or not. More than the disaster that was happening in this room, Brittany wanted to leave and explain herself to Santana who surely had the wrong impression.<p>

"Are you even listening to me?" Lauren shouted seeing Brittany looking longingly at the door.

"I am but you aren't listening to me. Let me talk to her please," she pleaded.

"I think you've talked to her enough!" Tina yelled.

"You don't understand! She is really kind and she would understand if we explained!"

"We have to kill her," Lauren said darkly.

The room was silent as three stunned people stared at her.

"What?" Brittany felt her body go numb.

"We cannot afford to have a cop on the loose who knows about us, and who knows what else Brittany told her."

"I didn't tell her anything!" Hysteria was making her hyperventilate, "You can't kill her Lauren! You can't!"

"Can't I now?" she said dangerously picking Santana's gun out of her belt, "This place is perfect for hiding a body."

"Stop it!" Kurt finally stepped in, his eyes as dangerous as Lauren's, "I didn't sign up for this! I am the goddamn makeup and costume man! I am here to make Brittany look her best for simple data recovery missions! I am not on board for murdering innocent people!"

Tina took a timid step forward, "I agree. Killing her is too far, we aren't the bad guys."

Lauren looked between them all, tapping the gun against her forearm, "So do you suggest we just let her go and ask pretty please that she not tattle."

"I would agree with that before I agree to killing her," Kurt said swiftly. "Before we get into the relative stupidity of alternate plans, can we just let Britt talk to her? Who knows maybe it will work, maybe she will understand."

"And maybe she pretends to."

"Whatever just let her try and we can work from there."

The room was pointedly silent as Lauren thought it over.

* * *

><p>Santana sat facing the corner of the garage, feeling like a well used piñata. Everything hurt bad and she was pretty sure her head was bleeding, though none of this really got through to her. Instead a burning hatred was rising up in her chest. How could she have been so gullible? Best cop on the force and she had been duped with minimal effort. The evidence was all so clear now, she had been at Femme and NoriTech South, and even though she had an ID badge she hadn't been able to read her own damn name! Then she even said she had quit after she got what she wanted. Santana chuckled miserably, she had really been suckered, Britney must have found the whole thing hilarious. Hell, was her name even Britney? Doubtful.<p>

The way she never let Santana see where she actually lived, should have been a hint. More importantly, if she were really mugged and nearly killed, why would she always insist on being dropped off a block from home. Inner city New Yorkers on a camping trip? How had that not been a warning?

She had even missed all the incredibly obvious signs that Rachel had fallen for Quinn, because she was so busy thinking of the woman who was clearly around to keep track of what they were doing.

Even now she could hear Britney's voice mingling with others as they argued about something; probably how to get rid of her. Then silence blanketed the whole area followed by the click of someone opening the door, closing it and walking up behind her.

The chair spun around and as she suspected she found herself looking at the last person she wanted to see. Britney stood before her, the wig was gone and her makeup had been hastily wiped off, it was clearly and unmistakably her.

"Who the hell are you?" Santana asked, her voice full of barely contained rage.

"I'm Brittany," she said softly, afraid of the look in Santana's eyes.

"No, your real name."

"That is my real name. I'm Brittany Pierce, it's spelled B-R-I-T-T-A-N-Y. The last name I made up was just mine spelled in reverse."

Santana searched her face for some sign she was joking, "Are you stupid or do you just think I am?"

A wounded frown crept over her features, "Please don't be mean Santana-"

"Fuck you! You used me!"

"I never used you, I didn't even know you were involved with this until you told me this week."

"I told you I was a cop when I met you how the fuck did you not manage to make that connection?"

"I thought you were just a guest. We didn't think regular cops would be involved at all. I swear I didn't know."

"I don't care! Either way you lied to me! I met you when you were pretending to be someone else and you just kept that up!"

"I never lied about who I was! You just had the spelling of my name wrong!"

Santana struggled against her restraints, she wasn't ready for this conversation, she would rather fight her way past the walking tank.

"Let me go!" she shouted futilely.

Brittany took Santana's face in her hands even though the other woman tried to struggle out of her grasp, "I'm the same person you ate burgers with, I'm the same person who made love to you, I'm the same person who is in love with you and I'm the same person you love. Nothing about us was a lie."

Santana yanked roughly at her bindings again in a desperate attempt to pull herself free, she only succeeded in causing the twine Lauren had used, to cut painfully into her skin. She could feel the blood run down her hand and onto the floor, she decided to focus on that instead of the pain looking at Brittany was causing.

"What do you want from me?" she asked defeated.

"I want you to listen to me."

"I have no choice."

"Was everything you told me a lie?"

"How dare you ask me that fucking question. I loved and trusted you like a total moron."

She stood and walked behind the chair, Santana felt her grab the twine around her wrists and unbind them then she moved back in front of her and untied her ankles.

"You said that if I ever wanted to talk about what happened to me you would listen, did you mean that?"

"Yes," she said holding her bleeding wrist, feeling a little confused.

Brittany quickly ripped a piece of her dress and wrapped the wound tenderly as she spoke, "We all used to work with the CIA, instead of being chased by them. Then our team got asked to do something none of us thought was a good idea. We were supposed to break into this museum and steal a diamond which was really weird because we had never been asked to do anything like that before and it sounded more like movie stuff than what we usually did. They had all these reasons they needed us to take it, like us getting it would keep America safe or something. Artie and I were always the ones to actually go on missions, Lauren did computer stuff while Tina and Kurt did our disguises. So when we went in, everyone else waited far away but it didn't take long for everything to go really, really bad. The alarms went off before we even got inside and we ran, but the guards shot us. It was lucky that Lauren has good eyes like a bat cause she saw the lights from when the alarms went off and came back to get us, if she hadn't we would have died."

She decided to leave the bat thing be, "Your story, assuming I believed a word of it, makes no sense. What the hell kind of museum hires armed guards who shoot to kill?"

"That's exactly what Kurt asked when we were driving away. We found out that the building was a museum but also a hiding place for a lot of secret stuff for the government so it made us look like we detected."

"Do you mean defected?"

"I'm pretty sure it's detected. Anyway we had to go to Tina's friends for help cause we were being looked for at hospitals, so maybe that's why I have bad scars and Artie can't walk, or maybe that would have happened anyway."

"Sounds like you fell asleep during a double feature of the A-Team and Mission Impossible." Santana said eyes narrowed, "Again, assuming I believe this nonsense, why in the world would the CIA bother to frame you."

"I can help you there," said Lauren as she stepped out of the office followed by Kurt and Tina.

"The way Brittany tells it, yes it sounds ridiculous, no offense Britt, but it really happened. The reason the CIA wanted us framed? Me," she finished the sentence with an air of pride that couldn't be missed.

"Can I go now?" Santana asked.

"Please let her tell you," Brittany begged, her eyes so full of desperation Santana remained seated, albeit grudgingly.

Lauren smiled, "You are in the presence of the greatest hacker of the modern age, now that you know this that makes you, the CIA and this team that know that. The program that your people seem to think we are trying to steal? We aren't, we are getting it back. I created it to make missions dealing with security bypasses a breeze and that simple project turned into the most powerful program the world has ever seen. It's name? Zizes. This puppy was years in the making, it is pure genius and of course everyone wanted it, but I understood it was far too powerful to put in government hands so I flexed my awesome copyright muscles and was able to keep the program for myself for use on missions as needed. The higher ups did not like this. They tried to steal it many times and failed. Their last option, frame me, make me run, and take it. Unfortunately they weren't afraid to take my whole team down too. However, little did they know I made it incapable of being copied by anyone except, of course, myself and broke the elements into parts that can only be combined by me. The program is like a master key without the other pieces, but it is still possible to be caught hacking and with enough investigations it is possible to detect the hoax. With all the pieces you are golden, whatever you type is truth. So what we plan to do is simply get back what was taken from me and use it to disappear."

The story concluded, she stood looking like she was inviting everyone to bask in the glow of her awesome.

The only thing that had really sunk in with Santana was the last part, "You were planning to disappear?" she asked looking directly at Brittany.

"Yes, but not away from you."

"I can vouch for her on that, she really was planning on staying with you," Kurt said earnestly.

"I still am if you'll let me," her voice was barely audible.

"Why not just use this program to clear your names then?" Santana said trying not to let what Kurt and Brittany had said make her feel slightly better.

Tina answered this time, "Ah, I think Lauren may have oversold the capabilities of this program, it is amazing, but it is only a master of the digital realm. I could make a stack of valid documents that prove you are a ten foot tall German boxer named Vladimir, but if anyone looked at you they wouldn't give the papers a second look because, clearly, it's not right. We are wanted. Hacking will allow us to travel freely and keep random police inquiries from getting us caught but the reality is regardless of what kind of ID I carry, if the wrong person sees me and knows who I am they will arrest me. Even if we hack in and erase our wanted status, they will remember the truth, and probably wouldn't even be tempted to believe it because they know we're hackers. It isn't a golden pass from reality, it'll just help us get by."

"Couldn't you get rid of everyone tailing you?"

"You mean kill them?" Kurt said, "No! Why is that everyone's go to idea?"

"Besides that, most of the people we would have to kill were our friends and are just doing their job. If we used the program like you suggest then we would be doing the very thing Lauren refused to let others do, we aren't afraid of killing we just won't kill the innocent," Tina said.

Santana thought hard, then the back of her head started to throb again so she stopped, "Do you have a shred of proof for any of this."

"I have my scar and Artie has dead legs," Brittany said sadly.

"Besides that? A program that can only be put together by Lauren," Tina added.

"You have to realize that it is damn near impossible to believe that you four were CIA, especially this one," Santana said pointing to Brittany.

Kurt looked at her seriously, "I can fully understand your skepticism on that part, truth be told we aren't really sure why she's an agent either. She failed almost every exam ever, but she has never failed a mission and is a crack shot so she, like everyone else on this team, is considered one of the best."

Instead of looking insulted Brittany seemed quite proud of this analysis, "I also don't remember what CIA stands for," she added helpfully.

Santana couldn't find a counterargument to that because it did follow, she had been the most obvious suspect in the history of suspects, yet she managed to blunder her way right passed Santana's infamous criminal radar, "Alright, then if you are the best hair makeup guy, why was it so easy to spot her?"

Kurt visibly bristled, "I had fifteen minutes to change my whole entire wardrobe plan, she only told me you were going to be there right before the mission was going to start! I had a makeup and outfit plan for a blonde, changing her hair to red meant I had to scrap all that, plus what I needed to really change her face was special effects makeup and another free hour, two things I didn't have! I think I did a spectacular job given I really only had about five minutes to do it since the remaining ten had to be used to argue with Lauren about reprinting her ID tag. It wasn't my fault you just know her too… intimately."

Santana could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks, Brittany just smiled at her, "I wasn't on the floor for more than a minute when you spotted me, I even went out of my way not to look at you but you saw me anyway."

"Alright so you guys were framed, your friend was shot, you caught me, so now what?" she asked, needing a subject change.

"That's what we're trying to figure out," said Lauren, that evil look creeping back into her eyes.

"Can we let you go and not worry about you ratting us out?" Kurt asked directly.

She thought about that, sure turning them in would cement her career, she could be free of Rachel, Sue and Quinn in a heartbeat, but she would also be free of Brittany and that did not appeal at all, "I'm not going to help you, but I won't tell anyone either," she said finally.

"Why on earth should we believe her?" Lauren asked.

"Okay Lauren do it!" snapped Kurt, "Go ahead and kill her!" Brittany moved defensively to Santana's side, but Lauren hadn't budged, "Exactly! You don't want to do it and we will not do it for you, so either we kill her or trust her and we just took kill off the list."

In reality they had far more options and should probably exercise them, but there was one thing Kurt knew, Brittany had an almost magical way with getting what she wanted and he could see that she had Santana wrapped around her little finger.

"You guys got what you needed tonight right? So this is over?"

"We did get the file, but there is something else we have to do," Lauren said.

Kurt shot her a look that suggested he would really rather whatever this was, not be brought up, and Tina looked upset.

"What do you have to do?"

Since no one else would speak up Tina said, "There is one person we do have to take down, he is a CIA director and he is quite corrupt, we have to get rid of him so what happened to us won't happen again."

"I thought you weren't murderers," Santana said feeling irritated by this shift.

Kurt shuffled his feet, "We aren't. We don't kill civilians or cops for that matter but he is a criminal of the worst kind. Even so, we didn't originally plan to, we were just going to alter some documents and get him in a bit of trouble so he couldn't work for the government again but…"

"He shot me and Artie," Brittany said and for a moment Santana didn't even recognize that she had spoken her voice was so cold.

"So you're going to kill him?" she asked.

She nodded solemnly, Santana opened her mouth to speak but Kurt shook his head slowly and she understood; he had already tried countless times to talk her out of it.

"He'll be in town soon on account of this mess and after the deed is done we all vanish," Lauren said.

With all the information crammed in a head that was still slowly oozing blood, Santana decided it would be best to go home and let some of this sink in, "Can I get a ride back to my hotel? NoriTech is sure to be way too crazy by now," she asked wearily.

Lauren stepped forward, "Of course you can. Just know that if you go back on your word, I will use the very considerable power of Zizes to destroy your life," she said and turned to walk towards the door to the building.

She moved to follow but Brittany held her back, "Santana I will see you soon right?"

Without answering she pulled her hand away and followed Lauren, she was just plain too tired and broken to deal with this.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

In what was clearly a trend amongst Brittany and her friends, Lauren dropped Santana off a block from her hotel leaving her to walk the rest of the way, her head pounding. When she stepped in the door of the lobby, the first person she saw was an older woman with graying hair who, upon seeing her, clutched her heart, eyes wide. That was Santana's first clue that she looked a mess. It was confirmed by other hotel guests that seemed equally shocked.

Just wanting the comfort of a hot bath she walked to the elevator, punched her floor, and trudged to her room. After struggling for a while with getting her keycard from her wallet, she finally opened the door to find Rachel already inside weeping into Quinn's arms.

At the sound of her opening the door Rachel looked up, recognition caused a stunned look to blossom on her watery face before she almost took Santana to the floor as she rushed into her arms blubbering uncontrollably.

"I'm so sorry I didn't come with you! I froze! I'm so sorry!" she was yelling into Santana's chest hugging her incredibly tight.

She looked weakly over at Quinn who stood calmly to get a closer look at her, "What happened?" she asked her concern growing the more she saw of her wounds.

"I followed the woman and she led me into a trap a few blocks away, they knocked me out and when I woke up I was dumped out in the streets, so I got my bearings and came back here."

"I'm going to guess you didn't get a look at anyone."

"No they were ready for me," she said now trying to work out how to get the still weeping Rachel off her.

"Do you need me to take you to a hospital? You look…awful."

"Thanks, but no, I just need a bath."

Quinn looked at her meaningfully, "They didn't…"

"No! I swear I'm fine I just need a moment," she looked down at Rachel annoyed.

She nodded and pulled the weeping brunette away, who was reluctant to let her go, "Come on let her get to the bathroom."

"Santana I'm so sorry," she cried again.

"It's fine, I was stupid, I shouldn't have just run off, you know how it is."

A whisper of a smile crossed her face, "I was just so scared I had killed you," she started crying again.

Trying not to grind her teeth at the sound she asked, "What are you guys even doing here? I would think you would still be at the geek factory."

"After I alerted the agents to what had happened, they all but kicked us out of the building. All the Lieutenant's pull went out the window once they had a lead. Though Puck and Sam have been searching the streets for you in our van and Mike is still there trying to overhear if they've found you. Speaking of which I better call them." Guiding Rachel to the door she continued, "Let's go call everyone else and let them know she's fine alright?"

She nodded shakily and allowed Quinn to take her out of the room, but not before she mouthed one final 'I'm sorry' over her shoulder.

It took two tubs full of water before Santana could soak without the water looking like she had slit her wrists. Her hair had been caked in blood even though there was only a small cut on the back of her head, it hurt but she was too busy trying to collect the thoughts that were scampering around.

Quickly she found that what she would do next was totally dependent on Brittany. The choices were to turn them all in and break the biggest case to hit the NYPD since its creation or to keep it to herself just to see a woman she was in love with. It was worse than that, if anyone found out about who she was Santana would be in the deepest of shit, this was the stuff Federal prisoners were made of. Nevermind this whole CIA director murder plot that she now knew about.

She supposed the bad part was, she was less concerned about the man being killed than the thought of Brittany doing it. It wasn't like she had never killed anyone but Brittany was a person who was built on an innocence that murdering someone in cold blood would destroy. Even if that person deserved it.

Frustrated with thinking about it she climbed out of the tub, dried off, pulled on her night clothes and started to tend to her wounds. It was at this time that Rachel re-entered her room, thankfully not crying.

Upon seeing Santana trying to put Band-Aids on her wrists she rushed to her side, "Let me help please."

Too tired to argue she leaned back and let her tend to them properly, "You know I really am okay."

"I should never have left you like that, you stayed by my side even though we both know I annoy you. You didn't waste a moment in coming to my side and when it was my turn… I just froze."

"You're new at this don't be so hard on yourself."

Santana found herself looking right into her unflinching eyes, "I swear I will never do anything to endanger you like that again."

"Rachel take it down a notch, I said it's fine."

The smaller woman stood and looked her over, "Your wrists will heal well as long as you keep the wounds dry and well bandaged, your hands just have scrapes so it will be alright."

"What about here?" she asked showing the cut on her head.

"It's pretty small, it could use stitches, but I would need to shave the area."

"No way in hell."

"Thought not. Just keep pressure on it."

There was a powerful knock at the door, it was so loud Rachel shrieked and Santana jumped up thinking they were under attack.

Cautiously she looked through the peep hole to see Puck's angry mug staring back at her, lazily she pulled open the door, "I swear I'm alright," she said knowing how this was going to go.

Mike and Sam flanked Puck as they marched in looking her over, "Are you sure?" he asked.

"I'm fine, I just need to rest," she hinted heavily.

As usual Mike was the only one to get it and stepped forward to give her a brief tight hug before he turned to leave.

"Thanks for looking for me guys," she said before Mike could disappear.

Sam smiled, "We're just really glad you're okay, Puck was almost crying worse than Rachel."

That comment earned him a punch in the arm, "Shut up Evans, I was not crying. I was worried about you Santana. Seriously next time call us."

"I got hit in the head pretty hard, kind of forgot I had a phone."

He pulled her into a hug that made her feel like her head wound was going to start bleeding again, "Don't run off like that," he said stiffly before he turned and left.

"Be sure to stay where Puck can see you from now on so he won't cry again," Sam laughed.

He gave her a gentle hug and left as well, the door didn't close before the sound of him being punched again sailed through the air.

* * *

><p>The next morning brought a whole new outlook to Santana's situation. She missed Brittany desperately, she already regretted the way they had parted and wanted to see her again soon. It was pathetic and sad and revealing. She couldn't send her to prison because she felt like even the few hours she had spent away from her already were too much. It was almost depressing how badly she wanted to see her and hold her.<p>

In the night all she had dwelled on was turning them all in, but by the time morning came she knew she had never been serious about that. It was already too late to do it without implicating herself as an accomplice. All it left was a love of a woman she was furious with and couldn't be without.

Unfortunately her return home was hindered by the CIA finding out she had been found, meaning she spent the whole day answering the same questions over and over. By the end of it all, she was more worn out than after Lauren had tried to send her into orbit. To her relief everyone else had agreed to wait for her so they could go home together meaning they were on the road at ten at night and back to New York the next evening. The guys seemed to have learned to regulate their bladders thankfully.

Once they arrived at the precinct Santana looked at her car sitting in the parking lot excitedly, it represented home and the end of an endlessly bad trip. She should have known the moment they got back, Sue was going to be waiting to grill them all for several more hours. The Lieutenant treated them like employees at the beginning and by the end it seemed like they were all P.O.W.'s. She wanted to know every detail of everything that happened, trying to find some way to gain glory. In typical Sue fashion she was equally proud and furious that Santana had found the culprits, but hadn't captured them and seemed totally uninterested in the personal injury she had undergone. It seemed to take a lifetime but finally Sue allowed her to leave, making sure she knew to call if she remembered anything, and Santana was able to get in her car and drive home.

The one thing she knew she wanted to do when she got back was talk to Brittany, she had a strong urge to just call her on the way, but she had decided she wanted to exercise a certain amount of self control in the matter. As it turned out she was the only person who wanted to bother with that. Sitting at her doorstep, sleeping peacefully with her head in her hands, was Brittany.

Santana pulled into the driveway and got out of the car noisily startling the other woman awake.

"San!" she cheered jumping up.

"Are you really that simple?" she snapped, Brittany froze a frightened expression on her face, "You do realize about a million people can see you out here! Weren't you all just explaining to me what happened if you get seen?"

She smiled, "It's okay I'm invisible to most bad guys, besides Lauren made sure no one was watching with camera's when she dropped me off."

"And how long have you been here?"

"Since this morning," she said.

Santana shook her head and walked to the door taking out her keys, "Anyone could have come by after she left, it's not safe for us to be seen like this."

She opened the door and went inside to find Brittany still on the doorstep, "I'm sorry I just really wanted to see you."

Truly tired of people apologizing to her, she grabbed Brittany's hand and pulled her inside, "Whatever just get in here."

She closed the door behind them, Brittany watched her carefully not sure what to say, she had no idea how to make Santana understand her.

"I did want to tell you the truth," she said shyly, "but Kurt told me it would be a really bad idea."

"Us being together at all is a really bad idea!" Santana snapped, "Brittany I love you, I do, but you have put me in a really shitty spot here. If you get caught I'm totally fucked, Rachel knows what you look like and regardless of her recent slip ups she is definitely a stickler for rules, this will not fly with her. You're making me walk a ridiculously dangerous line and you didn't even have the courtesy to warn me!"

Brittany appeared to be on the verge of tears but she didn't cry, she just listened intently waiting for Santana to finish.

"How was I supposed to tell you? When would have been a good time?" she asked seriously.

They stood unspeaking in the hall by the door as Santana tried to come up with an answer, "I don't know," she conceded with a sigh, "I just don't want this, for either of us."

Exhausted she leaned against the wall and slid to the floor, Brittany moved to her side wanting to hold her but not knowing if Santana would let her.

"I'll only be at this for a few weeks at most, then after that…"

"After that? You are skipping the part where you murder a high ranking CIA official, someone I'm not sure is guilty of anything, leaving me as a default accomplice because I knew about it and didn't say anything. And then, yes, lets go to the after part, where, assuming you aren't killed in the assassination attempt, you escape and run to the far away land of _my house_. Granted it would be the last place any sane person would look but where the hell does that leave us? Like the creepy Lolita woman said, you guys will always be wanted."

"Lauren said she would make it okay no matter where we picked to live."

"And if Lauren is wrong both of our lives are over!"

"So… you don't want to be my girlfriend anymore?"

Santana made the mistake of looking at her and saw the infinite amount of anguish in her eyes, she cursed at herself for falling for this. Not that it mattered, even through all this Brittany somehow still made her feel emotionally safe, she still trusted her words and it still made her thoroughly uncomfortable to see her look so unhappy. It wasn't fair that this person out of all the people in the world would have won her over so completely.

"I always want to be your girlfriend," she said in a whisper.

Brittany smiled and kissed her lovingly, Santana returned it still screaming pointless expletives in her head because she knew this was a terrible idea and she was probably being played. However, as long as Brittany was involved she couldn't bring herself to care.

* * *

><p>The more time Santana spent with Brittany the more she learned that the other woman really hadn't hidden her personality, she was exactly the same bubbly person she had always been, but now she was free to talk about whatever she liked since there was nothing to hide. Santana got to hear all about how Lauren was, as she had suspected, the group leader in Artie's absence and all about how Brittany and Tina had known each other since they were small and had danced together in school. She learned about how Kurt was always the only person in the current group who seemed to understand her even if she confused him from time to time. The person she spent the most time talking about was always Artie, and it wasn't that Brittany talked about him a lot it was the way she talked about him that bothered Santana. She spoke of him with such tender reverence that it made it seem like she had a much deeper relationship with him than anyone else. Santana could have asked about it, she was positive Brittany wouldn't lie about the answer, but she was afraid of what she would hear.<p>

Her speculations on the subject were unwillingly dealt with one morning when she was woken by someone excitedly shaking her out of her sleep. Grudgingly she opened her eyes to see Brittany almost bouncing with delight as she held out a pair of jeans and a shirt in front of her.

"Get dressed, I have somewhere to take you!"

It seemed odd that she would have picked out clothes for someone else while still in her pajamas, but Santana took the clothes anyway. It was an old t-shirt that said Aperture Science that Sam had given her for her birthday and the jeans she only wore when she did housework. They were faded, torn and stained, but clean. Not knowing where it was that they were supposed to be going she had to assume this sort of attire would be appropriate so she got up and got dressed. Brittany did the same from the drawer in Santana's room she had somehow taken over, not that she was complaining, and in minutes she found she once again had put too much faith in Brittany's power of deduction.

The other woman was dressed like she was going to an interview for a modeling agency, she had a stylishly cut black pants suit that showed off her figure nicely with a gorgeous white silk undershirt.

Santana's face fell, "I already look like I've been shopping at Salvation Army why would you feel the need to make me look worse by contrast?"

"What do you mean? Kurt gave me this to wear."

"I think Kurt needs to dress both of us or better yet I'll just dress myself," she said moving for her closet but Brittany grabbed her arm and began to pull her to the door.

"You always look amazing come on."

"No, wait! Let me at least brush my hair!" her appeals were in vain as Brittany hauled her out the door and into the car.

She drove, following Brittany's directions reluctantly, still wanting a chance not to look like a hobo before they went wherever they were going. This was her first day off in quite some time and she had planned to spend it at home relaxing with her girlfriend. Instead she was driving to a mystery location that she was sure would leave her embarrassed about the way she was dressed.

They finally arrived at a beautiful apartment in Westchester that looked like anyone dressed like Santana was, would be shooed away at the door. Once she was out of the car Brittany began to chat excitedly to her as they walked to the entrance.

"So I checked with Lauren last night to see if it would be alright with her if I brought you here and she said she didn't care so I called Artie and he said it was fine for you to come too!"

She stopped in her tracks, "Wait what? Come where?"

"To meet Artie!" she was clearly very enamored with the prospect.

Santana had to admit she was a little curious about him but not curious enough to want to see him in person, especially not dressed like a dumpster diver. Her feelings on meeting him didn't reach Brittany as the impatient woman dragged her on, talking about how much they would like each other. She kept talking the whole elevator ride and Santana began to suspect she was actually quite nervous about them meeting. When they arrived at the apartment she knocked, waited for the reply that came faintly through the door, then opened it with her key.

To say the apartment was nice would have been an understatement, the place was stunning and incredibly clean. All of the furniture seemed new though it was sparse, probably to make room for the man that sat in the living room in a wheelchair. He sat before them with a computer in his lap and a warm smile on his face.

Brittany moved right to his side to give him a hug, her enthusiasm almost knocking his computer on the floor, "Artie, this is Santana," she said eagerly as she released him.

She stepped forward not wanting to hug him but thinking a handshake was a little weird, she opted to wave slightly instead.

"You are the infamous Santana that Lauren has been bombarding me with emails about," he laughed.

"She hasn't been saying bad things has she?" Brittany looked worried.

"No, just keeping me constantly up to date. Please have a seat," he said motioning towards the chairs behind them.

Santana sat carefully in a black love seat that was far more comfortable than it looked, "Thanks," she mumbled not knowing what else to say.

"Let me guess Kurt," he said pointing to Brittany before his finger swung to Santana, "Brittany."

Brittany looked worried, "No, she's Santana, I'm Brittany."

"I meant who picked out your clothes."

Santana was relieved and irritated he understood, given that he was aware that this wasn't even close to her style Lauren must have sent more than just simple emails, "You got it."

"Listen I understand what a big risk you are taking to be with Brittany but if even half of what she tells me is true she is very lucky to have you."

Great, in a wheelchair and a nice guy…

"I've heard a lot about you as well, I must admit I am a little confused about why you two aren't together," she said. As always being direct was her favorite way of doing things, though it had cause Brittany to stiffen up a bit.

"We were together back when I could actually walk but after what happened, well none of it matters. We are all going to go our separate ways in the end and, more importantly, you two are together now."

"Why are you all splitting up anyway? It seems to me you're strongest when you're together."

"As a covert operations team, but as wanted men and women we are a rather recognizable group and not knowing where the others are is the best way to keep everyone safe. The only person who would have a clue is Lauren and if she is found then our enemies have Zizes and we're all screwed anyway."

"I still don't get it, you let Brittany go to Femme and NoriTech as herself in front of a room full of agents and no one noticed a thing. This doesn't add up either, you're wanted or you're not."

Artie smiled pleasantly at her, "That would be the brilliance of Brittany. You see when we were thought to go rogue, only Lauren, Tina and I were listed as threats. Kurt was never on official CIA payroll, he was an outside guy we used from time to time out of our own pockets so as far as they knew he had nothing to do with us or at least nothing to do with the program. Brittany stayed off the radar for two reasons, before Lauren came to get us she was radioed in as dead and because if you were to look at her scores as an agent it is someone you would hardly view as a threat. Unless you know how good she is at her job, you will be led to assume that it is everyone else carrying her weight that allows our team to succeed. To them we just picked up the dead body of a useless comrade."

"That makes sense I guess."

"I know what we're doing seems a bit weird, but we did serve our country well for years and all we're trying to do is leave it a relatively safe place."

"I think it would be a lot safer if you simply destroyed Zizes."

He nodded, "I agree, but try telling that to Lauren."

Santana was irritated by the man, he was a dorky looking poindexter who had the nerve to be well spoken and charming. The way Brittany was even looking at him now was enough to make her temper flair, jealously wasn't something she had ever indulged in but she could feel it rising inside her just the same.

They continued to talk of more mundane subjects and when they did, Santana felt herself become more and more depressed about the whole thing as she watched them together. Brittany would tell a story that would trail off into the realm of the insane, but he would always gently correct her course or finish her sentences. They seemed so in tune with one another she couldn't see herself ever reaching their plateau of personal comfort with one another. She knew Brittany had just intended to share an important person in her life with her before he was gone forever but instead of feeling closer to her she felt farther away than ever before.

They said a pleasant farewell and Brittany chattered the whole way home about how well she thought things had gone with Artie. Santana sat in the driver's seat not hearing a word that was spoken to her, she was too busy wondering if Brittany would even still be with her if the others weren't so insistent that they split up. The thing that had her feeling the most depressed was not that she might be a second pick to Artie, it was that it wouldn't change anything if she knew she was.

* * *

><p>Mercedes sat typing for her seventh consecutive hour when she heard the door open, her eyes fell on Rachel, the small woman was carrying a stack of files almost twice her size, and her face twisted in disbelief.<p>

"Oh hell no Lily, I cut you a break once and you pull this on me?"

Navigating carefully through her limited vision she lifted the stack precariously and set it on the counter only to have Mercedes slam her fist down and prevent her from pushing it all the way on, "Okay I know you are overworked, but let me put this down and I will make you an offer you can't refuse." As an answer Mercedes removed her hand, Rachel pushed the files all the way on the flat surface and stepped aside to view the angry woman glaring down at her, "Hello again Mercedes, lovely necklace by the way, my partner, you remember Santana right…"

"Get to the point."

"She's having a rough couple of days, I think it's relationship problems and-"

"Fast forward to the offer I can't refuse or I will shove these files on the floor and entertain myself during my lunch break by watching you pick them up."

"If you show me how I will file some of your backlogged work!" she rushed, afraid for her unsteady files, "At least equivalent to the amount I am currently burdening you with. It is against regulations for me, as the arresting officer or partner of the arresting officer, to input the data into the permanent records, but I could deal with files unrelated to myself. Preferably ones that existed before I started working here so three months or later."

Mercedes watched her with dark eyes, "You make an interesting proposal, but how about this. Log triple what you are bringing in or take these files and shove them where the sun doesn't shine."

"Wha…"

"I have a long list of shit to do, nowhere on it does it say train a cop to file papers. It takes time to teach the proper method and I don't have time so make it worth my while."

Rachel looked uncertain, "But…" Mercedes began to push the files out of her space, "Wait! Okay I'll do it but you have to stop calling me Lily." There was a long pause as they just stared at each other, "Alright I'll just do it."

A dazzling smile bloomed over her face, "Excellent come on up and I'll show you how it's done."

Rachel sighed heavily knowing that what she had basically agreed to was breaking her dinner date with Quinn and walked to the door that led to the back area.

With a flourish Mercedes opened the door and gestured grandly at the room, "You want something over three months old? Take your pick!"

The wall of files she'd seen before had looked like a single row against the wall, now she could see it was four stacks deep. Feeling a bit bad for city records employees on the whole she approached the wall of work and looked over the tabs that stuck out. All the ones in red said **Puckerman**, there were a lot of them but she felt she would be better off not knowing the details of his antics. She spotted a few files for Fabray and even though she was curious as to what kind of cases she had been involved in, decided it would still count as a conflict of interests since they were dating. Then she saw at the bottom of one of the middle stacks a file that was extremely thick with a long typed heading on its tab. It read: **To the attention of Lt. Sue Sylvester, From Heide Wyss, Regarding Case #0000**

The whole thing smelled of something she wasn't supposed to see but she couldn't think up a single rule that would restrict her from filing it.

She pointed to the stack it was wedged in and turned to Mercedes, "I'll do these here."

* * *

><p>For the first time in all the years they had talked together, Dr. Pillsbury was witnessing Santana Lopez actually showing an emotion besides irritation, unfortunately it was intense depression. It was the time of her monthly evaluation and things were looking bad, Santana had no problem talking about the attack in St. Lawrence, but the moment she had brought up relationships it had all gone wrong. The Latina was lying curled up on her couch with her back to Emma, face buried in the back cushions. It not only made her look very vulnerable it made her hard to hear as well.<p>

"So can I assume things went slightly awry with this woman you are seeing."

"Slightly?" came her muffled voice, "She is in love with someone else."

"How do you know that?"

"I just do. I saw her with her ex and… it's just obvious."

"Okay, have you asked her about it?"

"I can't."

"Why?"

"Because nothing will change except how fucking insecure I feel."

"You don't know that, she will more than likely tell you how she is over this other person."

"No, she won't because she's not."

"Santana you are putting a strain on this relationship that doesn't need to be, it's not good to keep this all pent up because one day you will lash out about it and she will have no idea why."

"But I can't! I just can't deal with that!" she exclaimed sitting up looking distressed, "I already feel like a fucking idiot for even being with her! I can't handle confirmation that I am loving someone who is only with me because their first choice is unavailable!"

Emma waited for her to settle back into her earlier position before she continued, "I understand your fear about this but I think you may be selling yourself short. It's wonderful that you found love and you have to realize you can find it again. If she is playing with your feelings then maybe it's time to move on, but do that as a last resort. The first thing you have to do is talk to her."

"I don't want to move on. I don't want her to leave."

"As far as you have told me, this is your first time being in a loving relationship and that can be very hard because what you have to realize is that no matter how much you love someone, you can't control how they feel about you. You may not want her to leave but if what you say is true she may want to go and it would be best for both of you to let her. Again, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, talk to her first."

Santana sat up again and glanced up at Emma who saw a frightening mix of hopelessness and misery, "I don't care if she loves him or if she wants to be with him instead, I want her to stay with me. I don't want to talk to her about it because if I did, and she said what I know she is going to say, I think it would kill me."

Emma was now quite alarmed, it was a good thing Santana learned to open up, it was a bad thing that she was exhibiting all sorts of red flag behaviors. This sort of thing could be the intensity felt when in love generally, it could be the natural feeling that without the other person you won't go on, or it could be the start of an incredibly abusive relationship.

"Santana what would you do if she wanted to leave? If she told you she had to go and you couldn't come with her?"

It worried her when Santana didn't answer and lay back down on the couch without saying anything.

* * *

><p>Lieutenant Sue Sylvester was queen of her realm. She loved being the boss. It meant all kinds of privileges she was never even slightly shy about abusing. It also meant she could stand idly in any part of the busy precinct not doing a damn thing and no one could make her move. No one except Rachel Berry walking towards her quickly looking like she had something to say.<p>

Sue started walking, taking full swift strides as she went hoping to reach her office, and subsequently the lock on her door, before Rachel arrived. No such luck.

"Lieutenant! Lieutenant Sylvester!" she called.

When Sue refused to turn around the small woman broke into a full run, hearing her increase footsteps Sue took off running as well but was beaten to her own door. She glared at the little officer intently, conceding that being as annoying as she was it was probably natural that she be able to cut off even the nine time winner of the 100 meter race at the New Hampshire, Dover County Fair.

"What do you want Berry?"

"Lieutenant I was down at city records helping them file some papers and…"

"I hope you know I'm not paying you extra to help the help."

"Yes I know, but I found this one enormous file addressed to you. It contained loads of information on the incident with the hackers in Washington. It even came with a flash drive full of data I haven't even gotten to yet and even pictures of a few of them, I mean the file is massive and it would have helped us a lot at both NoriTech facilities. Plus it was sent at your request long before you gave us our assignment."

"What's your point?"

"My point? Isn't it fishy that something so important randomly appears in records without even hitting your desk?"

"No it hit my desk, and I sent it to records, well I sent it to my trashcan, but it was too big to fit all the way in so it was mistakenly sent to records."

"Why?"

"Did you see the name of who sent it?"

Rachel thought for a moment, "Heide Wyss?"

"Exactly, her name is Swiss. I don't trust the Swiss. What about that did you not understand?"

"You left us in the dark because of the woman's name? We could have cracked the case!"

Sue took a deep breath, "Swiss information is like their cheese; full of holes."

Rachel had to force herself not to yell, "But there is so much factual evidence here."

"Furthermore they complicate matters as evidenced by the ear sodomy they call singing. We need to be more like the Russians and think simple."

"What are you talking about?"

"In the mid nineteen sixties, the Apollo space program was about to send men into space, but they had a bit of a problem, zero gravity made it nearly impossible to use a pen since gravity is what helps pull the ink to the tip for its use on paper. So American scientist went to work to create an amazing new pen that would work through osmosis, thus the Sharpie was born. Now all that money, ingenuity and knowledge had given them a pen that could work in zero gravity. Do you know what the Russians used?" Rachel shook her head slowly, "Pencils."

"I've never heard that before."

"Of course you haven't, you're too busy looking up lies made up by the Swiss."

"Lieutenant your unusual prejudices aside this is-"

Sue held up her hand, "I have reached the limit of my ability to tolerate your voice, we will take up this conversation at a later date that will never be determined because I don't plan on talking about this again," she said and slipped into her office locking it behind her before Rachel could say another word.

* * *

><p>Santana awoke to find that for the first time in weeks she was alone in her bed. It wasn't really a surprise, Brittany had told her how irritated Lauren was getting with her being gone for such long stretches, only returning to her apartment for a few hours while Santana was at work.<p>

With a wide yawn she rolled over then jumped a little, startled; two large purple eyes were staring into hers. She sat up swiftly only to realize it was a stuffed cat sitting on her nightstand, the orange cat with the Disney wide eyes had a note hanging from its mouth.

**Gotta go meet with everyone about super secret stuff, I'll be back when you get home, but until then I will leave you with Charity, she doesn't eat much and she is extra cuddly.**

**Love Brittany**

Santana glanced over at the stuffed animal, "Man I hope she was kidding about it eating," she mumbled as she got up and got dressed for work.

The day was going to suck, she knew this because Rachel was in a frenzied talk mode, she was going on and on about the records department, Sue, a flash drive and the Swiss. She was even pretty sure she heard something about Russian pencils. Instead of tuning in she just added a random, 'Uh-huh' or 'Yeah' at what she felt were appropriate points. This tactic, effective as it was, left her completely unprepared for a sudden topic switch.

"I think Quinn is mad at me," she said.

The Sergeant's name broke her out of her monotony, "Huh?"

"I broke our dinner plans to work on these files and I've had to keep working every night for the past week. I asked her about making new reservations, but she was kind of cold about it."

"Well you already know I think she's a frigid bitch so all I can say is what's new?"

"You don't know what she's like when we're alone, she's very warm and comforting, she makes me feel like I'm the only person that matters."

"Feel free to never speak of that again."

"I'm serious, she's not usually like that when I ask her about things."

"Well have you at least had some private time on the job?"

"How do you mean?"

Santana gave her a suggestive look, "No! Not at work! I have insisted on that." The look continued, "Yes that one time, but I really thought no one else was there yet and we weren't on duty technically and-"

"So you've blown her off for dates and sex and you _think_ she's mad?"

"I mean we still see each other around at the station."

"Wow."

"I'm blowing this aren't I?"

"Worse than anyone else I have ever known, and I know Puck. Either make time before, during or after work, nobody wants to always be second to someone else's job. You have to put her first at some point."

"You're right," she said thinking hard, "I've already done what I promised Mercedes I'd do, but there is so much to that file and the Lieutenant won't even hear me out. I'm currently going through all the data on the flash drive which could take me ages…I guess I could hold off on that and maybe go to Quinn's house since she seems rather standoffish on the whole dinner idea."

"That sounds like a plan."

She nodded and leaned her head against her hand still in thought, it was a while before she turned and asked, "When are you ever going to let me drive?"

"When you're tall enough."

At that moment the radio crackled to life and Quinn's voice filled the car, "All Officers between Park and Third get to the Gramercy Park Hotel. Paul Savoy had an attempt made on his life, we are to provide backup and perimeter security for his guard detail to get him out of the area."

Rachel looked out the window, "We're a bit past Third if you want to skip the guard duty."

Santana smiled, "Way to dodge the stupid stuff Berry. Who the hell is Paul Savoy anyway?"

"I think I read his name in the file I was telling you about, unless I'm mistaken he's the director of agent affairs for the CIA."

Santana slammed on her brakes, flicked on the siren and sped towards the Gramercy Park Hotel.

* * *

><p>Brittany hit the cold smelly pavement far harder than she had intended to, she managed to choke back a scream as the bullet wound in her side exploded in pain. The whole mission had gone wrong, they had known she was coming, they knew where she was before she was sure she had the right room. She didn't think she had done anything wrong, she had done everything Lauren and Tina had told her to but none of it mattered because now she was hiding in a sewer with a gushing bullet wound. This was so much worse than the first time she had been shot, then the bullet had passed through her before she even knew what happened and her body fell and everything sort of shut off. The next thing she knew she was being pumped full of drugs that made being shot seem like something you would do for fun. This wasn't fun, this hurt so bad it made her want to vomit and when the foul stench of the sewer hit her she did.<p>

In the middle of trying to get away she had smashed her radio so she was left in the dark alone. In the past, in situations where things seemed bad, Artie had always been the one to be by her side and comfort her. Even after he had been hurt and they'd had close calls building the tunnel between NoriTech and Femme she had thought of him for comfort. Now all she could do was wish Santana would find her, but she knew that was impossible. She also knew that if she didn't start moving again she was going to die, either from blood loss or the men that had shot at her finding her again. She was sure they would eventually notice the trail of blood even though it was getting dark outside.

She could feel herself getting weaker by the second and even as she stood she doubted she would even be able to climb back out, but she had to try. The alternative was to die and never see Santana again, that thought hurt more than the bullet and the bullet hurt very, very much.

* * *

><p>Something was definitely up. When Santana and Rachel had first arrived they were told that the situation was under control, Savoy had been moved successfully and though the perpetrator had gotten away, all they were needed for was crowd control so the agents could look for clues as to where the person had gone. Except they were told this hours ago and even now the agents were sweeping around, guns out, searching. They were clearly not looking for evidence, they were looking for someone they believed to be nearby. The fact that they wouldn't just share this fact and get help from the NYPD suggested shady business, seemingly confirming what she had been told. If they really were looking for an assassin it was irresponsibly dangerous to not tell the officers on duty who could accidentally let the person pass or be unaware of potential attacks.<p>

In reality all she had wanted to know was if Brittany was involved in any way but if it was her, she had gotten away or was hiding quite well. She wanted to take a moment to call her to be sure, the only thing that stopped her was the sneaking suspicion that Brittany was the only ex or current CIA agent that wouldn't turn off her phone while performing an assassination. The noise might get her caught and it wasn't worth the risk. So she waited until everyone was done running around and they were given the all clear to leave.

As they walked back to the squad car she was not only relieved that Brittany hadn't been found but that even if the incident had been her doing she hadn't managed to kill the man. For some reason the thought of her murdering someone still didn't sit right with her, like she might lose a part of what made her such a good person if she did. When she thought about it some more she realized that since she didn't actually know Brittany's history with the CIA maybe she had killed before, maybe the uneasy feeling was that this was murder for the sake of revenge. Scrutinizing it further would mean admitting resentment of Brittany doing all this, at least in part, for Artie, but she wasn't going to do that.

Having rode out the rest of her shift on that ridiculous job she went straight home hoping to find Brittany waiting for her, but the house was silent and dark when she walked in.

Trying not to panic about her absence, she walked into the bedroom, for some reason wanting to hold onto the little orange cat until Brittany called or came back and when she stepped into the room she froze.

Someone had broken into her house.

No, that couldn't be right. Her window was wide open and the sheets had been pulled off the bed, but other than that everything was undisturbed or so she thought. Before she had a chance to turn on the lights a stray moonbeam came in and revealed the window frame and floor to be covered in a trail of blood. Horrified she moved to the other side of the bed and saw Brittany curled up in the missing sheets that were now soaked in red.

She was at her side instantly, "Brittany?!" she shouted shaking her, fearing how still and pale she was.

Her eyes opened slowly and focused even slower, when she finally recognized the person in front of her she smiled weakly, "I'm so glad you're here. I didn't think I'd get to see you again."

Santana felt an uncontrollable panic coming on, "What happened? Where are you hurt?"

She almost fell completely over as she pulled the blanket back to show a slowly bleeding hole in the lower right side of her abdomen, "Shit, Brittany," she said knowing this was far out of her ability to fix, "That was you at the hotel wasn't it?" she nodded, "How did you get here?"

"Took the bus to the corner then I walked."

She would have wondered how Brittany had managed to get on and off a bus in this state but then again weirder things had happened on public transportation in this city, it was outright amazing what people were willing to ignore.

"Babe you could have gone to Artie's he lives way closer to where you were."

"I'm sorry I know it was stupid. I didn't want to leave blood leading to your door cause you said people knowing about us would be bad so I came in the window."

"But why? I can't help you! You need a hospital!"

"I really wanted to see you one more time."

"Shut up you aren't dying!" she snapped knowing she was being silly, "Do you remember Lauren or Artie's number?"

She shook her head, "No, and Lauren doesn't let me bring my phone on missions anymore, I never remember to turn it off."

"So they left you with no way to talk to them?"

"I had a radio, but I broke it," she said and then gave a shuddering sigh that sounded so much like a death rattle Santana barely kept herself from crying.

"Don't talk anymore okay? Just focus on staying alive," she knew that was totally useless advice but she was at a loss.

She had no way to contact Lauren or the others and it was pointless to hope to remember how to get to Artie's under this stress. A hospital was the obvious choice and she would have taken it, consequences be damned, but the way the agents before had acted made her pause. They had been looking for someone and given how badly she had been hurt they had to know what she looked like, they could be searching for her even now.

"Brittany don't talk, just nod, can I call an ambulance? Is a hospital safe for you?"

Even as she shook her head 'no' she slumped a little further onto the floor.

She was truly out of options, they were looking for her now and unless she came up with something Brittany was going to bleed to death on her bedroom floor. Then it hit her, there was someone who might be able to help, it was risky as hell but the only possible remaining answer.

* * *

><p>Quinn sat on her unusually long sofa watching Rachel, who was currently laying next to her, legs stretched out on her lap, talking rapidly about some file or another like it was the holy grail. She had been rather surprised that the other woman had shown up at her house and supposed she should be grateful for what she got.<p>

Rachel seemed to notice her audience was distracted. She paused right in the middle of explaining how interesting it was that all of the hackers were ex CIA, and sat up worried.

"Something wrong?"

Quinn turned to her with a casual smile, "Even when you're here with me you're at work."

Understanding hit her and suddenly she felt awful, "I didn't mean to ramble on about that, I just get caught up in it all. I didn't even ask how your day was."

"My day was full of precinct crap and it doesn't matter. The question is how are you doing?"

Rachel thought for a moment, "I've been feeling a lot better. Santana doesn't seem too worried about me freezing up, but I think that's because she's distracted with her new girlfriend."

Quinn chuckled melodiously, "Santana? With a girlfriend? Really?"

"Yeah they seem good together, she's nice, I never caught her name though."

"Doesn't matter she'll find someone new in a day or two."

"I don't think so she's been seeing her for a while now."

"I can't imagine the kind of woman that could tie that one down."

"She is kind of odd in a sweet simple kind of way."

"That sounds like everything she hates."

"How would you know?" she asked sounding far more accusatory than she had intended.

"Because we used to date."

Rachel's mouth fell open, "You're kidding."

Quinn almost hurt herself laughing, "Of course I'm kidding, we hate each other."

A quiet sigh of relief released her sudden tension, "Why is that anyway?"

"It was dislike on sight, she hated my attitude and I hated hers. After I got promoted it just got worse."

"I see," she said, then she sat up and stared intently at the other woman, "Seriously though how do you know what she likes."

It was impossible to suppress another laugh, "Puck is known for his exploits, but what few outside of our little circle know is that Santana is just as bad as he is. She's just better at being discreet. That said, she has never been shy about telling everyone who and what she did on any given night. So it is more like an acquired knowledge over time than something I discovered for myself." She leaned forward and gave her a quick kiss, "It's cute that you're jealous though."

"I wasn't, I was just curious," she said knowing she was doing a horrible job of lying.

The piercing sound of a stock ring tone blared from Rachel's pocket, giving her an excuse to look away from Quinn's knowing smile. Looking at the display panel of her phone she saw that it was Santana. For a brief wild moment she freaked out, thinking somehow she knew they were talking about her. Realizing that was absurd she flipped her phone open.

"Hello?"

"Rachel listen to me. I need you to get to my house now, and bring medical supplies for a gunshot wound."

"Do what?"

"You have to do it now and do not tell anyone where you are going or what you're doing, I'll explain it all when you get here alright?"

"I'm with Quinn right now don't you think-"

"Then don't say another word! You have to stop arguing with me and get here now!"

"I really don't-"

"I'm out of options Rachel! Please!"

Something in Santana's voice made her understand that the person she was talking to was desperate, she glanced over at Quinn who seemed to already understand that their night together was over, "Alright," she said solemnly and hung up.

"I'm sure it's important," Quinn said upon seeing the apologetic look in her eyes.

"I promise to make it up to you. I'll buy you dinner and leave my phone at home I swear."

"You better," she said kissing Rachel in a way that made her very reluctant to leave, but the memory of the despair in Santana's voice made her pull away.

"I have to go," she quickly got up and dashed out the door before Quinn made it impossible to go.

* * *

><p>Santana sat in her dark bedroom holding Brittany, feeling her becoming weaker and weaker. She was still baffled that Brittany had made it to her house in this state nevermind that it was a trip made partially by bus. A hasty check around her house revealed that there were no bloody footsteps leading to her yard as she had thought there would be. The ex agent had actually managed to disguise her tracks quite well. Between the grass and the automatic sprinklers her presence was unnoticeable unless you looked at the outside of her bedroom window. That mess and the trail to her bed, she had cleaned hastily, leaving faint stains behind. She could have done a better job, but she was unwilling to leave Brittany alone for too long.<p>

Now left with nothing but the waiting, her brain began to process a few things, the first being that for some reason Brittany smelled like a sewer, the second that she had chosen to trek across New York to see her rather than seek help from Artie who was not only better equipped to help but closer by. It was weirdly comforting to her that she had been the first choice and though it didn't give her the courage to ask about it, the act itself made her sure that she was right to risk all she was to keep Brittany in her life. That led to the main thought that was like a dark storm cloud in her mind, Rachel was coming and she knew her partner would do just as she asked, but she was no dummy and would have this figured out in seconds. It was possible that she would listen to reason or believe a few well placed lies, but it wasn't very likely something of this magnitude wasn't something any rational person would let slide let alone a rule lover like Rachel. The small woman was a pain in every sense of the word but despite it all Santana didn't actually want anything to happen to her, yet if all else failed she knew she would have to steel herself for the possibility of having to silence Rachel permanently.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Scrambling to collect everything from her car, Rachel raced to the door of Santana's house and knocked several frantic times before the door swung open. She almost dropped her bags when she saw Santana, blood covering her hands and clothes.

She almost shoved her way in the door and began to search her body for a wound, "Who shot you? Why on earth didn't you call an ambulance!"

"I'm not hurt," she said in an oddly hollow voice and guided Rachel into the bedroom to the woman who was lying in the corner looking like a ghost wrapped in maroon sheets.

She did drop her bags this time, completely perplexed she rounded on Santana, "What in the hell? I thought you wanted me to help you with some minor incident! She needs a real doctor Santana!"

"I can't take her to a hospital, you are the closest thing I have to a doctor and she is dying."

Rachel turned and looked at the woman understanding beginning to settle in, "She's who they were looking for…"

"Yes, and I need you to help her now," Santana said, praying this wasn't all about to go as bad as she thought it was.

Her partner stared at her for a long searching moment, then sighed, "You never told me her name."

"Brittany."

"Right," she knelt next to the blonde who looked at her with barely opened eyes, "Brittany can you hear me?" her nod was barely distinguishable. "She's conscious that's a good sign. Help me put her on the bed," she said to Santana.

With the aid of the still soaked sheets, they were able to hoist her onto the bed, careful not to aggravate her wound further. Rachel grabbed one of her bags and began to pull out several professional looking kits full of surgical tools.

"You are lucky my dads bought me these as a graduation gift when I enrolled in medical school and that I am always over prepared because I really did think you had somehow just nicked your hand or something. I will need a lot of towels, some hot water, and get some fresh linens ready because she will need to rest and she can't do it on these. Ugh, she smells like she's been swimming in sewage, which is terrible for a wound like this so get some peroxide too."

Rachel said all this with a confidence she didn't even remotely feel. She had never used a single tool in her kits in any real life situation, though after her enrollment she had spent countless hours looking up procedures on the internet and mirroring them on store bought pigs and chickens. After several months of using food to mimic correcting the bloody traumas that could befall the average human, she found not only was she sort of over medical practice, she was definitely over meat. She knew how to do this in theory but it had been quite some time, her actual schooling barely covered trauma like this before she had dropped out. The most she had to go on was a distant memory of a sloppily reassembled dinner.

Santana retrieved everything she asked for post haste. Rachel went into the bathroom to thoroughly wash her hands before she pulled out a box of gloves from one of her bags, pulled two on and took a few seconds to let what she was about to do sink in. Then deciding better of that bad idea, left the bathroom, grabbed a cloth and began to wipe the area around the bullet hole clean.

"There is one more thing you're going to have to do. I'm going to have to cut this wound a little wider to fit the forceps in and get this bullet. I don't have any drugs to give her so it is going to hurt, a lot, and you're going to have to keep her still."

It was clear from Santana's face that she wasn't even remotely prepared for this, "Okay."

Rachel took the scalpel and made an incision to overlap the bullet hole. Santana watched with trepidation but was soon fully distracted by the fact that Rachel's actions had caused Brittany to become fully awake. She had forgotten how strong the taller woman could be as she struggled to keep her pinned to the bed with all her might. It was almost amazing that someone who had seemed to be on death's door could put up such a fight.

"I know it hurts but you have to stay still," she said, her voice betraying her anxiety.

The next step was to grab her forceps and begin to dig for the bullet, Rachel did so knowing this was probably going to hurt Santana to watch about as much as it hurt Brittany. Looking at such a serious wound for the first time in real life was terrifying and daunting but it was far too late to back out now. She flinched slightly as her patient screamed in pain, clutching hopelessly to Santana.

"San I don't want to do this anymore!" Brittany cried.

"I know you don't but you have to," Santana tried to sound comforting, but it was impossible.

"It hurts too much! Please stop!"

Not knowing what else to do she hugged her, trying to somehow give her the strength she lacked, "This is the best I can do for you, I'm sorry."

Brittany held her back tightly and then her body went completely slack, Santana stood looking disbelievingly from Brittany to Rachel who was still engrossed in her task, but not so much so to miss the way Santana was staring at her.

"Don't worry she's fine, she just passed out from the pain. Look she's still breathing," she said continuing to carefully maneuver the forceps.

Time seemed to move again as she looked at Brittany's chest to see it still rising and falling slowly. Looking back to Rachel she couldn't help a small relieved sigh, one mimicked by the other woman when the bullet was finally pulled free with a weird squelching noise. Rachel placed it delicately on the nightstand like it was an ornament.

"I thought you said her being awake was a good thing," she said almost giddy off the high that finding that Brittany hadn't just died in her arms brought.

"Yes before, not when I cut her open with a sharp knife and jam forceps in the wound," she said, "Hand me my suture kit please."

Rachel pointed to a small black box next to the binder containing her assortment of surgical tools, Santana grabbed it and handed it over, but instead of taking it Rachel just stared at her. "I'm sterile so you'll have to open it for me," she said as if that should have been insanely obvious.

Santana almost marveled at her talent to be irritating even in this situation, she unclasped the box and Rachel finally moved to pick out a needle and thread.

"Is she going to be alright?"

"I think so, I'm not a doctor but I'm pretty sure this wasn't that bad. As far as bullet wounds are concerned anyway, it didn't hit any organs as far as I can tell. I think the real danger here is blood loss, she is at the point where she probably needs a transfusion but since I don't keep pints of blood on me, you're just going to have to wait and see if she pulls through." Talking was a needed distraction to keep her hands from shaking, she did not want her partner to know just how scared she was.

Santana sat on the edge of the bed watching Brittany diligently to make sure she kept breathing, "Thank you for helping me."

Rachel finished suturing in silence, and cleaned the wound one final time before she packed up her things and moved to Santana's side. She sat carefully on the bed sensing that this conversation was to be navigated cautiously, she could feel the tension building as Santana clearly knew what she was going to say.

"Did you have something to do with the assassination attempt?" Rachel asked carefully.

"No."

"But she did."

"…yes."

Rachel waited for further explanation but when none came she continued, "Why is she here?"

"She came to me because she thought she was dying."

"You know what I mean. Why are you helping her? Why did you ask me to? I know you can be totally out of control socially but you have always been an exemplary officer and I did this because I trusted that you wouldn't ask me to do something that went against what we work for."

"I think I just broke that trust."

Rachel stared at her disbelievingly, "So you are helping a criminal because you have a thing for her?"

"I…" she looked away from Brittany for a brief moment, "I don't know what I'm doing. I know I'm being stupid about her. I don't have a lick of proof yet, but I don't think she's a criminal, I believe her when she tells me she was framed."

Rachel glanced over at the wound on Brittany's side, "Santana she was shot recently, and you just said you know she was involved with the shooting."

"No, not that," she shook her head realizing that she and Rachel were on different pages, "She's… one of the people we were looking for."

Realization hit her like a train, "She's one of the hackers?" she shouted standing.

"She isn't a hacker but yes she is a part of the group."

"What in the world are you thinking even having her in your house? The Lieutenant will kill you, no us, when she finds out about this."

Santana had a feeling things might go this way, she let her foot slide under the bed and she positioned it to be able to move her gun within reach. The silencer was already on the barrel and though she didn't want to have to use it, she was very ready to move to her worst case scenario plan.

"In the file you read, you clearly didn't read anything about her."

"Of course not! I would have mentioned something before now!"

"I admit I'm in a compromised position because when it comes to Brittany, I can be unbelievably blind but I have gone over and over this and I am pretty sure what she says is true. I mean isn't this whole damn thing incredibly odd? Before I even met her I asked you why there were two nobody corporations keeping the world's most potent hacker program, did you ever figure out why? She is ex CIA and she says that she and the other members of her team were framed so Savoy could get his hands on that program."

"So she was going to murder him to clear her name?"

"No… that was revenge for him shooting her."

"Of course he shot her, she tried to kill him!"

Santana rolled her eyes and leaned over to Brittany carefully pulling down the top of her shirt to reveal the scar on her chest, "He shot her first," she said placing the clothing back, "Again something I have to take her word for."

When she turned and looked at Rachel, she was surprised to see the most unusual expression on her face, it was like excited fear… but not, "Her name is Brittany!"

She looked back at the other woman confused, "Yes I said that."

"Brittany Pierce!" The surprised look Santana gave confirmed her thought, "She was there at the World's Wonders Museum break-in! She was pronounced dead at the scene from a gunshot wound to the heart!"

"How did you know that?"

Rachel groaned in exasperation, "The file! The file no one will listen to me about! It's fishy from top to bottom, long time employees for the government suddenly defecting and trying to break into a top secret facility to steal bioweapons, but that doesn't make any sense because they went in with a four man team and a van, five if you count their private consult and they didn't, and with that few people there was no way they could have gotten anything of value out of the building let alone transport it!" she rambled, ecstatic not only over the sudden link she made but that someone was finally listening. "They had no reason to even do any of that because they had the Zizes program, that's the name of this mystery program by the way, and they could have easily made documents having anything they wanted hand delivered to their doorstep."

Santana wouldn't have been able to follow her steady stream of words if she hadn't known a lot of this information already. It was making her feel much less ridiculous about having believed Brittany in the first place.

"So you agree that this is whole thing stinks."

Her exuberant smile faded, "It does but she still tried to kill a man with a long sterling record of service."

"I won't deny she was being foolish in this revenge plot but it's not just that. He set them up to get Zizes for himself and I can't imagine that a man who would be willing to so casually murder his subordinates to get what they have, would want to use it to bring about world peace."

"He's had it this whole time."

"He has it in parts and the only person who can combine them was one of the people he ran into hiding."

"I get that Santana but don't you think that this isn't something we should decide on our own? I get that you love her and don't want to see anything bad happen to her, but what if she really is what she appears to be? I think it would be smart to turn her in now and minimize the amount of trouble we will all be in if we tried to figure this out alone," she said carefully.

"You saw what happened at the hotel right? Savoy knows her, she was his subordinate for years and she came to kill him. One of the notorious defecting ex agents who, up until now, has been presumed dead and what did he do? Not tell a damn soul. The whole time we were out there they were looking for someone even though they told us the 'unidentified' person had gotten away."

"Maybe they didn't see her," Rachel tried.

"They weren't expecting an assassination attempt, this wasn't in the heat of battle she would have had to have made an offensive move for them to draw on her and though it is possible, I find it highly unlikely that they were close enough to see her attacking and close enough to shoot her but not close enough to see who it was."

"It could have just been Savoy's body guards who saw her and didn't know who she was."

"And didn't tell him about it? Or anyone?"

"That would be really weird."

"An innocent person would have had her face on every billboard within a mile and we would have gotten put on overtime searching the streets for anyone matching her description, instead they quietly send us home."

"There could be more to this than we are seeing."

"I'm sure there is, but I don't trust anyone with this right now. I'm sure that if I had taken her to a hospital they would have known the moment she set foot in the door and killed her in the night. They are being sneaky and playing dirty. I agree it would make more sense to just turn her in and let her prove her innocence in the courts but if she is telling the truth, and we both agree the official version of events is suspect, then the people we are turning her over to are the very people who would do her the most harm."

The brunette still seemed uneasy, "So what do you want to do about it? You can't just let her run around New York trying to murder Savoy."

"I can't let her be killed by him either. I can't even begin to know what to do about all this but I know that until I am sure that she won't be murdered the moment she shows her face to the public, I can't justify turning her in."

Rachel sat back down on the bed, looking at Brittany and then at Santana wondering what in the world the blonde had done to win such loyalty from someone who usually hoarded her trust, "You have been on the force a lot longer than me and I am aware that you are known to go by your instincts which has served you well, but you are aware that what you are hiding here is huge. Even if she is telling the whole truth and they were framed it won't matter if she gets killed and her connection to you is found out. The people she is trying to take down are powerful and you are going to get sucked in this with her while she's running face first at a brick wall."

"I get that and I know you would be in it too if anyone knew about tonight. Leave here and pretend it never happened, if anyone asks I was drunk and threatened you to make you join me even though you were busy."

"Quinn won't buy that."

"Tell Quinn whatever you have too. All I'm asking is that you let me sink or swim on my own. If I go down I will say whatever it takes to keep suspicion off of you."

"Santana if this gets too out of control I would have to say something. What am I even talking about this is already too out of control…"

"Rachel I am honestly begging you to walk away from this."

She could see the desperation in Santana's eyes, and a hint of something else she was far too inexperienced as a cop to notice, "I do owe you for the whole NoriTech North thing," she said quietly.

"It is asking a lot, especially from you because I know how much you want to do the right thing, all I want is to make sure turning her in, even is the right thing."

Mind made up Rachel stood and grabbed her bags off the floor, Santana watched her carefully as she walked to the door and stopped, "You should be sure to buy some pain killers soon, and keep her hydrated with water and vitamin C to help replenish her blood. Be sure to keep the wound dry, even when she takes a bath."

"Rachel…"

"I won't tell anyone, but please Santana, be careful."

"Thank you," she said, meaning it with all her heart.

She turned and walked out the bedroom door and then suddenly stuck her head back inside, "Also keep her off her feet as much as possible and no, erm, strenuous physical activity for a while okay?"

Santana nodded, "Got it."

After she disappeared from sight and the sound of the front door closing thundered through the house, Santana flopped down next to a still unconscious Brittany, letting out the breath she had been subconsciously holding. She held up her hands and saw they were trembling uncontrollably, she tucked them under her arms and tried to forget what she had almost done to the person that had saved Brittany's life.

* * *

><p>It took hours to get everything right. She had to find suitable pain medication in her house, which she had, but it was years old from back when she'd had an ulcer, one she suspected was caused by Quinn related stress, but it was better than nothing. Then she had to move Brittany off the bed without ripping her stitches so she could change the sheets, haul her to the bathroom to clean her, which admittedly wasn't all that unpleasant, then get her back in bed. Next she had to rouse Brittany just enough to get her to take the pain pills so she wouldn't wake up screaming.<p>

After her endless task was finished, she managed to properly clean the blood still evident in the bedroom and on the window, wash the wrecked sheets, haul herself into the shower and then into the bed next to Brittany who now smelled of soap and shampoo, but still looked very pale. Santana was just happy that she was still breathing.

Being left inside her own head again, was proving to be a determent to her sleeping, she was still reeling from the very insane decision she had almost made. It's crazy that she had almost murdered a fellow officer over this, but to add to it, what in the hell was she going to do afterwards? Her lack of forethought in the matter worried her, being impulsive had its place, but this was plain reckless and not at all like her. She loved Brittany a great deal but she couldn't say she even liked who she was when the other woman was involved. It seemed like she would freak out and lose the ability to reason, it made her irrational, jealous and, now, homicidal. Her life before had been good enough where she had to wonder why she should want to hold onto Brittany this badly, though it wasn't that things had been bad before, it was like she was addicted to the way they were now. The way she felt with Brittany was unnerving and scary and she was totally enamored with it. Maybe this was how love was for everyone or maybe this wasn't even love, maybe she was mentally unstable and this crazed behavior was always destined to happen at some point. How would she even know? It wasn't like she had something else to compare it to.

The morning came with Santana having gotten not one wink of sleep, she got up and wandered into the kitchen to the phone to call in sick. The result was a twenty minute lecture from Sue followed by a rant on abolishing sick days. Santana put it on speaker and made breakfast as her boss talked on and on. Then, when even she was tired of her own voice, Sue hung up abruptly, Santana was just finishing her eggs and toast when she did. Marveling at the woman's ability to be absurd, she washed her dishes and went back into the bedroom to try and figure something out.

She stood by the window trying to come up with some way to contact Lauren or Artie when she heard a soft voice come from the bed.

"Did I die?" Brittany asked weakly.

Santana looked over at her, "No, you didn't."

"Oh because the last thing I remember is crawling into the sewers… and I know I was thinking that I really wanted to see you and then I am here and I feel floaty."

"Not heaven just my bed and a couple of Oxycodone," she laughed.

She snuggled into the covers lazily, "It's the same thing."

"Brittany last night, did Savoy see you?"

She looked surprised, "You know about that?"

"Yes, we talked about it a little last night."

Brittany looked troubled, "I don't remember that."

"Honestly it's for the best, but do you remember Savoy?"

"Um, yes he saw me, before I saw him actually."

"Were you walking around in plain sight again?"

"No, I was in the air vents and I was trying to figure out which room was his and then his guard shot me. I was trying to open the little hatchet when it happened so maybe they saw."

Santana had to assume she had meant hatch and not hatchet, "When did he see you?"

"It surprised me pretty bad so I just fell through and landed behind his bed, I just fought my way out from there."

Santana looked at her with a frown, only Brittany could brush past what would have had to have been one hell of a gunfight like that, "Do you have any idea why he wouldn't have released your name and picture to the public?"

"No…Santana?"

"Yes?"

"I'm hungry."

Laughing Santana retrieved some of what she had just made and gave it to Brittany and watched as she practically inhaled it. Her eating reminded Santana briefly of their first date and she sorely wished that their relationship could have always been that simple. Why couldn't Brittany just be a woman she met and fell in love with? Why couldn't they just have normal couples issues?

Santana waited until she had finished most of her food to make her down more pain medication with orange juice.

"You know you can't do that again right?"

A stubborn grimace passed over her features, "I have to get rid of him."

"No. You don't. You don't have to do any of this, you, Lauren, Tina, Kurt and Artie should just stop this and move on."

"You sound like Artie," she grumbled.

"Then you should listen to him!" she snapped, hating that they agreed.

"But he made Artie crippled and he tried to kill me!" her argument was weak in the haze of sleepiness, brought on by the food and pills.

"Right! And then he shot you and you come crawling in here bleeding all over the place nearly giving me a damn heart attack! I know you want revenge for Artie, but please find it in you to think of me!"

Brittany looked stunned, "I do think of you. All the time."

"Not when you do shit like this! I am so desperate to keep you around, I made the major oversight of not hounding you about trying to murder this man because I think some part of me didn't believe you would do that! I actually just assumed you wouldn't do it because you knew how potentially disastrous that would be for us! Hell I even explained it to you! I swear I feel this inexplicable need to trust you and when I do, I find myself in some weird position I never would have been in if I hadn't! I don't even know myself anymore because I keep ending up having to do insane things just to correct an error you made! I mean, to clean up this mess I almost shot my partner in the head after she put you back together! You are trampling all over me with this and acting like it should all be alright! It's not!" she hadn't meant to shout but once the words started flowing, there was no stopping it.

"San I'm-"

"Don't say you're sorry because you're not. Not at all. If you want to apologize then promise me you will let this go."

"I don't think I can."

"Then I don't think we can see each other anymore," she said feeling her guts twist at the words.

She looked at her with the sad eyes Santana couldn't stand to see, "You don't love me anymore?"

"Don't do that. Don't make this about me not loving you. I think I have more than proven myself on that front, I am saying that if you don't love me enough to stop tailing Savoy then we clearly need to part ways."

"Do you even understand why I want to kill him?"

"Better than you do I suspect, but it's not what you pretend it is. This is about revenge for Artie pure and simple."

"He can't walk ever again! I should have been watching out for him but I failed, and I couldn't even be there for him when he was down because I was being stupid and got shot too."

"How do you even know it was him? You were shot in the back."

"Artie told me," she said sadly, "He was awake the whole time…and in a lot of pain."

"Shooting Savoy will not change any of that. Brittany at this point he's shot you twice, I probably want to kill him more than you do, but it wouldn't fix anything."

She considered this as she ate the last bit of eggs on her plate, "I want to stay with you."

"Then you will stop?"

Brittany gave a fierce look that scared the Latina a little, "I promise I'll stop trying to kill Savoy, but you have to stop thinking I don't spend all day trying to figure out how to keep you out of this."

"You do a fine job of it," she snorted.

Rage flashed on the pale face as she slammed her plate on the nightstand, "I know everyone thinks I'm an idiot, it's true I don't understand everything people tell me and yes I failed the CIA tests because they used long words, but I'm not! I didn't even want to go to the North place after I knew you would be there! I told Lauren I would rather work my way through their regular security because I knew there was a small chance that you would see me and I didn't want you finding out like that! I worked super hard at telling you everything about myself without telling you about the secret stuff because I didn't want you to love a lie and then you accused me of not being who I said I was! And just so you know I'm still hurt about that! I have to go through so much stuff to come and go from here to make sure I'm not being followed because I don't want you to get in trouble! I think about you all the time all day and then you just say…"

Santana had rushed forward and captured her mouth in a passionate kiss, when they parted Brittany had lost her train of thought entirely.

"I didn't know," Santana said infinitely glad just to know she cared that much, "I'm sorry I didn't realize."

"You didn't ask," she griped.

Santana just smiled and kissed her again, this time pushing her down onto the pillow, Brittany tried to further this by sending roaming hands under her shirt but her lover pulled away before she could make it halfway up.

"Uh, we can't do that…with your stitches," she panted, her face a bit flush.

"What's the point of a fight if you can't have make-up sex?" Brittany pouted.

"Seriously though you have to take it easy, I think you might have pulled a couple of stitches yelling at me already."

Curious Brittany looked under the covers and pulled the thick bandages back to see her wound, "Ugh, I'm going to have another bad scar."

"Rachel isn't a doctor, so maybe. On the other hand I find scars sexy."

"Really?"

"On you I do," she said smiling.

Brittany yawned widely and it was clear that her second dose of pain meds were kicking in full force, her eyes were a little hazy as she said, "I'm glad."

Santana felt the fatigue she had avoided tugging at her so she climbed back in the bed next to Brittany holding her close. As her eyes closed on the image of golden hair and white skin she felt thankful that Brittany hadn't called her bluff, she really was out of backup plans if she had refused to leave Savoy be. Determined not to feel pathetic about the fact that she wouldn't have broken up with her either way, she drifted off into a peaceful dreamless sleep.

* * *

><p>Rachel and every officer at the New York Police department stood in total shock and awe of their Lieutenant, who had lined them all up in front of the building in two single file lines on either side of the entrance so she could parade back and forth in a World War I Russian infantry uniform.<p>

"Simplicity. That is still the theme people. Granted the NoriTori whatever was a bust, I accept that. What I will not accept is failure." Pointing to a random subordinate she shouted, "Officer Stupid Face! What will I not accept."

The man Rachel knew to be Stan Grey glanced around to see if he was really being spoken to, "Who me?"

"Wrong answer! You are on crosswalk duty for a month, make it two because your face truly is stupid." Stan just looked flabbergasted as Sue walked on, "Q!" she shouted and Quinn appeared dutifully behind her as if she had patiently been awaiting summons.

"Tell me what I will not accept."

"Failure."

A proud smile came over her face, "Right on point as always, which is why you will be given this assignment. You will guard Paul Savoy during his time in our great city."

The only person who looked more shocked than Rachel was Quinn, "Ma'am?"

"You heard me, you will be an ambassador of safety for that pompous CIA asshole so I can increase my ever growing web of favors owed me."

"Am I bringing someone else with me?" Quinn asked clearly still reeling from the news.

"Do you not remember the theme?"

"I remember it, but wouldn't say five people still be simple? We are talking about someone who fought their way out from under three trained bodyguards while injured."

"Exactly, the assassin is now injured, the playing field is level and now the lesson in simplicity can be learned."

Rachel felt cold fear fill her, she was pretty sure Brittany wouldn't be able to do anything for a few days, yet there was the possibility that she was in contact with her friends and they would do something horrible. She was suddenly very much regretting her decision to keep quiet.

* * *

><p>Santana looked at the ratty door then at Brittany who she was holding up, "Are you sure."<p>

She nodded weakly, "Yeah."

Shrugging she knocked on the door, "If you say so but it's almost two in the morning they are likely to be asleep…" she had hardly put her hand on the wood before it was yanked open by a frightened looking Kurt.

"It's Brittany!" he called back into the apartment.

He moved to Brittany's other side and together he and Santana got her inside and into the bedroom where Tina had been lounging.

Now she stood looking relieved and alarmed, "What happened?"

"She got shot," Santana explained.

Just then Lauren rushed in the room looking worried, "Is she alright?"

"She's paler than Kurt," Tina whispered.

"You guys don't have an elevator so I had to carry her up several flights of stairs. It aggravated her wound a bit."

Kurt lifted her t-shirt to have a look under the bandages and covered his mouth looking horrified, "Did you use a broken sewing machine?"

"I used a friend who was nice enough to keep the whole thing to herself."

"Why in the hell didn't you answer your phone?" asked Lauren suddenly.

"It never rang," she said pulling it out of her pocket only to realize it was out of power.

"Come on," Lauren said jerking her head towards the living room.

She sat behind a desk that held about nine monitors with a line of wires thicker than Santana's body coming down behind it. Lauren spun around and began to riffle through a box laying on the floor and came up with a charger. Handing it to Santana she indicated the chair opposite her desk.

"Sit."

After removing a host of broken computer parts Santana sat and looked up to see Lauren had parted the monitors and was now handing her an extension cord plug. She plugged up her phone and turned it on, immediately about thirty messages from Rachel showed up, deciding to deal with that later she flipped the phone shut again.

"Okay we owe you for last night, clearly you hired Jack the Ripper to sew her up, but it's better than nothing."

"I did it because I love her not to further your agenda."

"I can respect that."

"I brought her here because I'm sure you have better access to doctors and medicine. I don't want to save her from a bullet and lose her to an infection."

"You have no idea, the bathroom is probably better stocked than the average pharmacy. This many wires with this many people… we've had some incidents. Even now I'm sure Tina is making her feel like she could walk to the moon."

Santana was about to get upset until she realized Lauren had meant with drugs, "That's good. She was doing pretty well at first but after she got up once to go to the bathroom nothing I gave her made her feel any better."

"You did the right thing, what I should let you know is that in the future if you happen to have our lovely Miss Brittany and she has a bullet hole in her, please leave your phone on because since you are the only person besides us she hangs around in this city, you best believe we will be calling."

Glancing at her phone log again she saw about fifty missed calls from a private number, she held it up, "That you?"

"Indeed."

"Well she suddenly appeared in my house dying I'm sorry I didn't think to charge my phone."

"Forgiven. Just remember for next time."

"There won't be a next time, she isn't going after Savoy anymore."

"Please tell me you are serious about that!" Kurt exclaimed coming out of the bedroom.

Lauren held up a hand, "Were you able to help her pain problem?"

"Solved. Once it kicks in all the way I am getting my sewing bag and fixing that Frankenstein stitch going on in there, but back to you, what is this about her giving up on Savoy."

"I got her to drop it," Santana said simply.

He sighed with relief, "Thank goodness someone was able to."

"Kurt this pillow taste like pop music!" came Brittany's amused voice.

"That'll be the morphine, gotta go," he said and left to rejoin Brittany who was clearly feeling wonderful.

"Well that's about a hundred hours of hard work down the drain," Lauren said pulling a flash drive out of one of the many towers surrounding the desk and tossed in a red box labeled Incinerate.

"What was that."

It was clear by her face that she shouldn't tell but was too proud not to, "In order to get close to Savoy I had been developing a version of Zizes that was meant for use by Brittany." She nodded her agreement as Santana gave the wow whistle, "This is like giving a toddler a nuclear device because she is inherently bad with machines, a fact that made these NoriTech missions a nightmare. Anyway I made this thing nearly as powerful as the original, but totally user friendly, it even had help menus… I called it Zi," she added fondly.

"Why didn't you use it the other night?"

"It wasn't ready. Honestly I didn't think I would ever finish it but it turns out I am so awesome I did. The only thing left to do was to insert the core program but it wasn't done recombining."

"You lost me."

Lauren gave a derisive laugh, "Non-techies I swear, okay the main program is about an exabytes worth of data…" seeing Santana's face she changed course, "A bunch of data that usually can't fit on something small like a flash drive, so I built my own custom one with its own RAM so that…" more blank staring, "The program's really big, I am awesome so I made it fit into something really small, when Savoy stole it all, he made the data big again but in order to assemble all the pieces it has to be small. Making it small takes time, lots of time. So our computers have been working hard at doing that and only a few hours ago was the part needed to run Zi done combining. It'll be about four more weeks before the main program is online. Hence why we are still winging it."

"Why throw it away?"

"Why keep it? Who wants a user friendly atom bomb? The whole point of this is keeping it out of the wrong hands."

"Ah," she said eyeing the flash drive.

"So I half called to see if Brittany was with you and half to find out what the hell had happened on your end."

"What do you mean."

"They knew she was coming. Tina and I are the best in the business when it comes to camera's and computers. The only way they knew where she was hiding was if someone told them the plan."

Santana bristled, "Well it couldn't have been me I didn't know the plan!"

"Oh, I know it wasn't you," she flipped one of the screens around that displayed a residential road from a top view and pointed to a familiar house. "See that? That's a satellite image of your house," she flipped another screen showing the exterior from somewhere across the street, "Your front door," another screen of her house, "Your back yard. We have camera's everywhere."

She was torn between being impressed at their thoroughness and indignant at their audacity, "In my house too?"

Lauren looked casually towards the bedroom, "No, Brittany and I had a bit of a tiff about that, she really wanted to either protect your overall privacy or didn't want us peaking in at you two getting it on… but it never seemed to bother her when we would all be crammed in an apartment like this with her and Artie-"

"If you are watching my house so damn close how would you not know she was there?" she interrupted, that had been more information than she had wanted.

The larger woman looked insulted, "We monitor a lot of places, at the time we were looking at the Gramercy Park Hotel. Then we were looking at Artie's place because that's where she should have gone and we did check your house, but all we saw was a Prius in the driveway. And since Ms. Private Pants wouldn't let us put camera's inside the house we had to assume you just had company. It did not appear, to the casual observer that someone on the run was hiding in your house. Your home phone is tapped but I supposed when you called your friend you used your cell, something that would have also been tapped but Brittany refused to go through your things."

Santana was feeling worse and worse about her earlier accusations, "Not that I'm trying to implicate myself but why are you so sure it wasn't me if you only have partial surveillance?"

"Suspecting you would be a waste of time seeing as how I wouldn't even need Zizes to take you down with us. Besides we already had like a day long fight about that, I'm kinda over the topic. The other answer is we aren't sure it isn't you, I just wanted to show off my amazing surveillance setup and make you aware of how to contact us in case of another emergency in the future. We don't plan to hang around long but in the meantime, know we are right outside."

Looking over at the bedroom door she asked, "Where is she going to go when all this is over?"

Lauren looked disinterestedly at her screens as she clicked her mouse to pull up different locations, "No idea, wherever she wants."

Hesitating for a beat she finally said, "Could you make it safe for her to move in with me?"

"Once Zizes is at full power, it would be more than easy," she said slowly, "but you would have to clear it with her."

Santana nodded and got up to move back to the bedroom. Brittany was sitting giggling hysterically at Tina who was trying to keep her from moving while Kurt was re-stitching the wound and it did admittedly look much better.

Seeing Brittany's compromised state she decided that she would wait until she was back on planet earth to ask her about moving in. Kurt noticed her standing there and smiled as he put the finishing touches on his work.

"No worries I have some excellent creams that will keep her from scarring up."

"San, Tina has green streaks!" Brittany tittered.

"I see that," she said kindly.

"Where is Artie?" she asked no one in particular.

"This place isn't wheelchair accessible, the building or the apartment Britt," Kurt said offhandedly as he stood to wash his hands.

Every time she heard his name it made Santana grind her teeth so when a dull buzz reached her ears and she turned to see her phone vibrating dramatically, it was a welcome distraction. She walked back into the living room and answered it.

"Hel-"

"Where the hell have you been?" came Rachel's irritated voice.

"What? Around, why?"

"Well you are supposed to be home sick so answer your phone!"

"I'm answering now so what's so damn urgent?"

"Have you solved… that problem?"

"I have a lot of problems but let's just assume you mean one of my more recent ones."

"Quinn has been assigned to guard Savoy!"

"Oh. Well that problem has been solved."

"Are you sure? Can you promise me that it's not a problem?"

"Yes, I promise."

* * *

><p>Santana sat at the kitchen table with a hand full of clubs watching Brittany's face twist in concentration, her own face too worn out to bother. It only took a few days for Brittany to recover enough to be able to walk and only a little more than that for her to be at Santana's doorstep excited to see her again. Lauren had forbidden Santana to make a habit of visiting their hideout, saying it was hard enough maintaining security as it was, meaning that when she answered the incessantly ringing doorbell she was greeted with a kiss that had been pent up in Brittany for two weeks five days and fourteen hours. Her jaw was just plain sore.<p>

Since she still wasn't really sure if it was safe for her to be involved in rigorous activities she had managed to talk her down to a card game. Brittany had agreed and seemed content but Santana was sure she wasn't going to make it to the end of the day without the blonde cornering her. A skill she possessed that Santana never had when it came to sex was predatory patience.

"Do you have any clubs?" Santana asked.

"Nope! Go fish!" she said proudly.

"You know the clubs are the ones that look like clovers right?"

Her face fell, "Oh yeah," she said and handed over a two of clubs.

Santana took it and placed her pair down, "Hey have you thought about where you're going to live after the program is done?"

"Any hearts?"

Santana had to sigh internally, she'd had a hand full of clubs for the better part of thirty minutes, she did it just to keep the game going, but she had to wonder how Brittany hadn't noticed this, "Go fish."

"You sure? The hearts look like the organ of the same name."

Santana made an effort not to laugh, "No they don't."

"Wait well what is this called then?" she asked showing her ten of hearts.

"It's called a heart but real hearts aren't shaped like that."

"Really? What a gyp, this is a really cute shape," she said pulling a card out of the pool.

When she saw it, she did a little dance and placed a pair of hearts down, "Uno!" she called despite the fact that there were still nine cards in her hand.

"Have you thought about it?" she asked again.

"Sort of, I want to be close to you but I'm not sure where."

"What if you moved in here?"

Brittany stared at her seriously, "You mean it?"

"Of course, we've kind of gone through a lot to stay together what would be the point in starting your legit life on the run so far away when we both know we'll be together most of the time anyway."

"Yes!" she exclaimed getting up and pulling Santana to her.

She knew that this time she wouldn't be able to escape the onslaught as Brittany kissed her again, she wanted to protest and attempt to talk her out of possibly aggravating her injury again but Brittany once again was able to control the situation far faster than Santana could adapt and she found herself on her living room floor underneath the taller woman a total slave to her touch. The evening was spent with Santana getting a wicked case of rug burn while rediscovering every inch of Brittany.

Lying naked on her carpet had never been a way Santana had ever imagined she would spend an afternoon but with Brittany in the same state of undress next to her, she had to admit she would have no problem doing it again sometime. Looking over at her body, she saw the impression of the sloppy stitching Rachel had done had all but faded and the stitches Kurt had put in place were neat and barely noticeable even if the area was slightly more pink than the rest of her. Santana couldn't help but feel the fear of losing Brittany every time she looked at it, this didn't go unnoticed by the other woman.

"I thought you found my scars sexy," she said a little self consciously.

Santana closed her eyes and nuzzled her face into Brittany's neck, "I do, but I also think it's scary how close I came to losing you."

"Don't worry about it anymore, it's over."

"Not until Zizes is up."

"Hmm? I'm sure she's up now."

She sat up, looking suspiciously at Brittany, "The program is working?"

"What? No I thought you meant Lauren."

"How could you possibly confuse that?"

"Because her last name is Zizes."

Santana was simultaneously surprised and completely unsurprised, "What is with your friends and bad code names for things?"

"She's good with code names, but if it's computer stuff she names it after herself. Her first one was called Lauren then it was Laura then L, Z, Zizes and Zi was the new one."

She laughed, but it brought her back to seeing the slightly discolored skin on her side, "Brittany are you sure you're okay to be doing all this? Doesn't it still hurt?"

"Yeah," she said her eyes regaining that predatory look that Santana had come to know too well, "but I feel more good stuff than bad when I do this."

"You could… be making… it worse…" she said in broken intervals as Brittany interrupted her with kisses.

"I asked Kurt and he said it was fine for a little while."

"Britt it's been three hours."

She shrugged, "We took breaks," she said her hands beginning to creep down Santana's thigh.

"I have work tomorrow."

"It's still early."

She was out of excuses and decided to just let go and give in.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The next morning she woke in bed to find Brittany fast asleep, she was kind of glad because she didn't want to be seen limping to the bathroom for a shower. The previous night had been worse than the time Sylvester had sent them to a weeklong training camp, 'accidentally' hit the drill instructor with her car and took his place. She had no idea where Brittany got all her stamina from, but she supposed it was part of what made her a top agent.

After a hot shower and a brisk walk around the house to try and regain some normalcy in her stride, she set off for work and arrived to find Rachel waiting for her at her desk. Since she had saved Brittany, Santana had been far more tolerant of her than she usually would be. Seeing her made her want to turn around and find something else to do, the newfound respect meant she didn't.

"What's up Rachel?"

"We've been assigned as backup for an event at NoriTech South."

"Oh my God, Sue is not trying to get us to spot people again is she?"

"Not this time, Paul Savoy will be there to do some investigative work and we will be assuring his safety. This is his last day and it's just perimeter work."

"I thought Sue was going simple."

"I used my exceptional power to annoy people I talk to in convincing her that three was simple enough," she said somehow keeping a look of dignity on her face.

"You that worried about Quinn? I said it would be fine."

"I know, this isn't really about safety, Quinn and I had a bit of a fight and this is sort of the only way I think she'll let me talk to her."

"What about?"

"She was married to Finn and she never mentioned it once! I had to find a picture of them together in her attic, before she even brought it up and she isn't even apologetic about it! Like it was just something I should have already known! I mean did you know she had been married to him?" she blurted angrily.

"Yes."

Rachel stared blankly at her, "You did?"

"Of course everyone knows that, they were married for like two years or something."

"Everyone?"

She turned to the desk across from her, "Puck who was Quinn married to?"

He had his head down on his desk, clearly nursing another hangover, "Finn. Why?"

"Because Rachel didn't know."

"Does she know I slept with her too?"

Santana shrugged and turned back to her partner, "Do you?" her face said she hadn't, "Don't let her past bother you, it is seriously in the past."

"I just wish I had known."

"What would that have changed?"

"Nothing."

"Then apologize for being the ass I know you were about it and move on."

She looked a bit dejected, "I… I wish she understood how I feel about this, I mean they are still friends now…"

Santana was a little pleased to know that she wasn't the only person who harbored those kinds of feelings, not that she would ever admit it, "Trust me she was over Finn a long while before they got divorced, I think she was more emotionally attached to Puck and she barely likes him," Santana said, guiding her to the garage.

"I suppose I shouldn't have made such a big deal out of it," she said, clearly thinking over what she had been told.

The car ride was spent with Santana explaining all the ways Finn and Quinn weren't even slightly likely to get back together. When they finally arrived for their special assignment at the front doors of NoriTech, Rachel seemed more upbeat and rather expectant when Quinn approached them, Savoy in tow. Santana eyed him with intense dislike but he didn't seem to notice, he was looking around nervously, as a hunted man should. Rachel waited diligently for Quinn to address her, but instead she turned to Santana, who was totally surprised.

"I'm not sure why the Lieutenant sent you here but I assure you this job is not complicated. You are to stay here and watch for any activity, if you see any, radio in. If anything happens inside, stay where you are unless I call you, understood?"

"I guess, Rachel you get that?" she asked, purposefully putting the focus on the other woman who mumbled a weak 'Yes' under Quinn's fiery gaze.

As the Sergeant walked away, Santana glanced down at her partner, "You must have said something really stupid."

She looked away, "There was some name calling."

"Do you like being single?"

"She won't let me say I'm sorry."

"That's classic Quinn, just let her cool off and she'll be back."

Rachel looked at her inquiringly, "Tell me honestly, you have never slept with her, right?"

"Fuck no!" she shouted, disgusted by the question.

"I just need to be sure because you two seem to know each other quite well sometimes."

"I don't know what she thinks she knows about me, but it's probably all lies."

"She thinks that before Brittany you were about as doggish as Puck."

"…okay that part and nothing else."

Rachel laughed a little and Santana couldn't help but chuckle too.

The day was wasted at the steps of NoriTech and after a while Santana suggested they pop into Femme, but Rachel refused on account of Quinn's orders. Orders Santana told her, sparing no detail, what she thought of them. As the night fell, the wretched grip of boredom even compelled them to play the most argumentative game of I Spy ever.

"In what way is that green?" Santana snapped, earning her curious glances from passersby.

"It is technically aqua-marine, but it falls under the category of green," she said observing the car she had chosen as her subject.

"Aqua; water, water; clear. marine; ocean, ocean; blue. Clear blue."

"It's more green than blue."

"But it's still blue! Whatever, new rule, primary colors only!"

"How about we switch to adjectives?"

"No because then you will describe something as 'flouncy' and I will be forced to punch you in the face."

"Well we are next to Femme."

It took Santana a moment to get that but right before she could congratulate Rachel on saying something amusing for the first time since they had known each other, her phone rang. She checked the number to find it only read **Private** and naturally assumed it was Lauren.

"Hello?"

"Tell me Brittany is with you," came Kurt's tense voice.

"The last time I saw her was at my house, I'm at work," she could hear him curse loudly and in the background Tina was speaking rapidly to someone.

"Santana?" more than the voice, the clicking sound of fingers relentlessly typing told her it was Lauren.

"What's going on?" she asked, feeling bad news was on the way.

"You need to find her quick, she isn't answering her phone anymore and there is no way to stop her."

"From what?"

"Someone called her and told her Artie was in immediate danger from someone on your force," Santana would have interrupted but she had temporarily lost the ability to form words. "This is clearly a setup, whoever did this is trying to get her killed because they sent her into NoriTech South after the personally assigned police detail of our dear ex director. And you're going to have to move fast because this person said they would help her get in at seven."

Santana glanced at her phone, "It's seven ten now!" She turned and looked at the building as if she could somehow see this all happening, but the building was calm as always, which seemed impossible since suddenly her life was spiraling down the drain.

Rachel stepped closer, looking concerned, "Is everything alright?"

Ignoring her, she stepped back taking a deep breath. "Are you sure? How do you know?" she asked, trying to remain calm and find out if there was some way this could not be happening.

"After she showed up with a cop as a girlfriend, I started to monitor her phone calls, I just got around to checking her log for today and I found this. The person is freakishly good about hiding their tracks, the only way to avoid me tracing the call is to know my manual override codes or be a stellar hacker."

"Are they here with her?" she asked, now moving at a quick pace towards the building.

"I don't know, the voice was, of course, disguised and the best Tina can do is discern that it's male. My guess is Savoy has set a trap; he'll let her in, have her kill a cop and then, whether she is killed in the escape attempt or not, no one will ever believe a thing she says. She will be a terrorist and a cop killer and by the time Zizes is up, it will be far too late to try and suppress the media shit storm that will follow."

Every bad scenario that could ever be, flew through her mind; she hung up and took off running for the door.

From her expression and body posture, Rachel knew Santana had just been told something serious, and when she ran for the building, she knew something had gone quite wrong. Anything that had Santana moving like that was bad and she would need her help, but the fear that had taken root the last time reared its ugly head. There were all kinds of good reasons to stay put, like how Quinn had told them to stay there and how she wasn't really sure there was any real danger at all; maybe Santana just really had to go to the bathroom.

Standing alone and watching her partner disappear through the doors, she remembered how it had ended last time and how it could have been so much worse, but most of all she remembered that she had sworn to never let her go through that alone again. Rachel took a calming breath before she went in, her hand resting loosely on her gun.

* * *

><p>Santana had run headlong into a building whose layout she didn't know and she quickly realized the folly in this. She ran around pointlessly for several minutes, checking every room without a lock and scaring the life out of several employees before she stopped and cursed loudly for forgetting she had a radio.<p>

Almost yanking the device off of her belt, she held in the talk button, "Sergeant Fabray?" she waited a beat before she tried again, "Quinn answer me!"

Silence was her only reply and after a full sixty seconds had passed, she cursed again spinning in a confused circle. She had no idea where to go. Since Savoy had been here to look for evidence it would follow that he would be where the crime took place but she had no idea where it was that the program was actually stored. Her panic was stopping her deductive reasoning and she knew she was overlooking something obvious, so she held still for a moment and looked around calmly.

There were a few scattered employees looking at her with interest, most looked like clerical staff but one was wearing an ID badge like the one she saw on Brittany the second time they had met. Then it clicked and the solution was so simple she almost smacked herself in the head; ask someone.

She ran to the man who had the badge, causing him to stagger backwards in surprise, "Do you know where Paul Savoy is? He would have been with a blonde officer to investigate the break-in."

"Uh…" he stammered, still trying to understand his situation, "I don't know him but if he was here to investigate the theft, he would most likely be on the third floor." Without wasting a moment, she headed for the stairwell at the end of the hall but his voice stopped her, "If you are trying to get in any of the rooms up there, you will need an access card!"

Frustration flared in her and she stormed back to him, "Do you have one?"

"Of course but-"

"Hand it over."

He seemed quite reluctant, but thinking better of arguing with an armed officer in a hurry, he dug into his front coat pocket for the thick plastic card and handed it over. Santana snatched it and ran as fast as she could through the stairwell and up the stairs.

The third floor seemed deserted, which was lucky given how she tackled the stairwell door open. Her heart was beating hard like it was trying to pump molasses through her veins, and her hands were trembling every time she swiped the card in front of a door's lock. She swiftly opened and checked the first three doors and began to think that it was possible that Brittany had the sense not to come. A hope that was shattered violently as she opened the fourth door.

It was the worst case scenario plus two. Quinn lay unconscious on the floor by the far wall in an empty dark room full of desks and computers. She didn't appear to be visibly injured which was good, the awful part was that Brittany stood next to her with Quinn's gun in her hand ready to shoot.

"Wait! Stop!" she yelled moving closer.

Santana drew her gun and trained on Brittany's head and she knew as an officer she should have had her finger ready on the trigger, but she couldn't even feel that part of her hand. Not that it mattered, she was pretty sure they both knew she wasn't going to shoot.

Brittany didn't even flinch, she just stared hard at the woman on the floor, "She's going to kill Artie," she said in a cold hard voice.

"No she isn't, I promise Quinn doesn't even know about Artie."

"How can you be sure?" she said so softly Santana almost missed it.

"Because I know her, I have for years and that just isn't her style. I talked to Lauren and she said that the person who talked to you is trying to set you up. Right now you are walking into another one of that bastards traps, so please put the gun down Brittany, I'm begging you."

She still wouldn't take her eyes off the unconscious woman, "When Lauren first met you she wanted to shoot you. She's not always right."

"If you do this I can't help you anymore, we will both be totally screwed and everything we planned will be for nothing," her voice cracked with the despair.

Brittany didn't move, she just stared at the unconscious woman before her with the gun lowered halfway between being at her side and pointed at Quinn's head.

Then the situation leapt from bad to worse when Rachel flew in behind Santana, her gun was aimed at Brittany and it was clear she wasn't having the same reluctance as Santana. Her gun was steady, the hammer already cocked back.

Instinctively Santana turned her gun on Rachel and found in this case her finger was firmly on the trigger, "Rachel. Don't."

She didn't even acknowledge that Santana had spoken, it was clear between the two women that the only courtesy Rachel was going to give was not shooting her girlfriend on sight. Turning back to Brittany, her gun still trained on Rachel she tried again, "Britt put the gun down."

"What if she really does kill him?"

"Do you trust me at all? Even a little? Because if you do, then you have to believe me when I say I swear that she won't murder Artie."

"You swear?" she asked, looking at Santana for the first time.

She nodded and lowered her gun off of Rachel as she approached Brittany and gently removed Quinn's gun from her hands and set it down. Rachel never moved, her usually soft brown eyes were hard as she watched Brittany like a hawk, even after she was unarmed. Santana grabbed Brittany's hand and led her out of the room knowing there was nothing that she could say to her partner at the moment that would make anything okay.

Once they were out of sight, Rachel rushed to Quinn's side almost tripping over herself in the effort. Her panic and anger over the whole situation was making her every movement clumsy. Her fear for her lover's life was alleviated when she found that not only was she breathing, but she hadn't even been hurt. Confused, she sat in the dark next to Quinn wondering what in the world to do next, she settled for calling an ambulance and decided to work from there.

* * *

><p>Santana ran with Brittany being dragged along behind her, she used the card she had been given to leave as quickly as possible through the back exits. Once they had navigated through enough alleys for Santana to feel safe enough to stop, she did and let out the fury that had been building with every step they had taken since they left Quinn and Rachel.<p>

"What the FUCK Brittany!"

"I didn't do anything."

"Didn't do anything? You assaulted an officer with intent to kill!"

"I didn't salt her, she was like that when I got there," she said looking a little offended.

"You mean she was knocked out before you arrived?"

"Yes, the guy on the phone said he was another ex agent who knew about Savoy and wanted to warn me about him using other people to get to us. When I got here that woman was already lying on the floor."

"Why didn't you tell anyone about this call? Lauren had to tap your phone to get the information."

Brittany frowned, "I told her not to do that. I didn't tell anyone because I knew they would try and stop me."

"Of course they would and do you know why? Because it was a trap! You almost murdered an innocent woman based on a stranger's info! I mean how did you even get in there?"

"Through Femme like last time."

Santana looked incredulous, "They didn't close that off?"

"No, maybe they thought it was easier to get there after work that way, and after that I just went through all the doors that unlocked."

"Someone remotely unlocked them for you as you went through the building?"

She nodded, "And in the last room I found the sleeping woman that I was told was going to kill Artie and her gun was lying right by her."

"This is definitely Savoy, he is the only person besides Quinn that was in the building that could have ordered that kind of thing, plus he had the motive to do it. He was the one that called you."

"Is he going to kill Artie?"

"No! No one is going to fucking kill Artie!" she shouted his name, making her anger burn hotter.

Brittany flinched, "I didn't shoot her, so it's fine."

"It's _not_ fine! My partner, a person I promised you wouldn't be a problem to, JUST saw you about to shoot her girlfriend and our boss! IT'S NOT FUCKING FINE! You promised me you wouldn't do this!"

"I promised I wouldn't go after Savoy."

"How do you _not_ see this is just as bad?"

She seemed truly apologetic, "I'm not trying to hurt you. I just want my friends to be safe, especially Artie, I owe him so much."

"You have to go Brittany," she said softly, now too drained to yell, "Rachel is probably half way to Sue's office by now. I'll see what happens, but I doubt I'll be able to talk my way out of this."

Her blue eyes were suddenly frightened, "If you're in trouble you could come with me, Lauren could hide us both."

"Not together. Everybody separates remember? Anyway I owe it to Rachel to face whatever comes," she said, already resigned to the inevitable backlash of her actions.

"You don't have to," her eyes were bright, helpless and shining with unshed tears, Santana loved them and resented the hold they had on her.

"Yeah, I do. Please do one more thing for me and walk away. Just go to Lauren, pick a new state and be happy there."

"I thought we were moving in together."

"Britt I'm tired of begging. Go," she said wearily.

She didn't leave but she did allow Santana to walk away.

* * *

><p>By the time she returned to NoriTech, Rachel had already left in an ambulance with Quinn, but she had apparently kept the details of what had happened to herself. Puck, Finn and Mike were already on the scene, as were what seemed to be every other cop on the force. When Puck saw her, he rushed over looking amused.<p>

"Santana tell me you found the guy."

"Who?"

"Savoy, idiot. Isn't that who you went after?"

It seemed highly unlikely that in light of recent events Rachel would have covered for her, but on the other hand who else would it have been, "Yeah no luck," she said simply.

Finn approached his face full of concern, "She looked really out of it when they took her away," he said distractedly to Puck, glancing off in the direction Santana could only assume the ambulance had gone.

"Dude chill, it was chloroform she's fine."

"But why would he do that?" Finn asked no one in particular.

"Who?" Santana asked feeling like she was missing something big.

Puck raised a confused eyebrow, "You get a dose too? He's talking about why Savoy would bring Quinn into a secluded room and knock her out for, besides, you know, the obvious stuff… sorry…" he added, seeing how Finn reacted when he said it.

"Rachel told you that?"

He shook his head, "Quinn did, she was conscious when they took her. She didn't even want to take the ambulance, but Sue made her."

Santana felt an uneasy comfort in the knowledge that Rachel hadn't already squealed on her. She had to assume it was because Quinn had told her who had really done her harm. It seemed quite unlikely that she would let it go entirely though, she knew Rachel well enough to know this wasn't the end of the incident.

* * *

><p>Paul Savoy turned himself in two days later saying that everything had been a misunderstanding and proceeded to cloak himself in lawyers. No one on the force believed a word of it and neither did the courts as he was discharged from his positions and given jail time that his lawyers were able to reduce to time served. An amusing outcome to the incident was that after Savoy was removed from his position, he was replaced with a well spoken woman who had apparently been trying to prove his shady dealings for some time; her name was Heide Wyss. Sue was livid.<p>

It had been a whole week since the Brittany-Quinn incident and Rachel still hadn't spoken to Santana about it. Actually she hadn't spoken to Santana at all; not one word. They went on patrol together in silence and worked into the late hours not exchanging a word. Rachel wasn't hostile or cold towards her, she merely acted as if she didn't exist.

Quinn had been released from the hospital almost immediately and a few days later it was apparent that she and Rachel had made up over Finn, so she could only assume the silent treatment was due to the fact that she had thoroughly broken her promise. She could have pushed the issue and tried to speak to Rachel but she just felt that if someone who loved talking like Rachel loved talking wouldn't open her mouth even in anger about what happened, it was best to leave it.

When it came to Brittany, Santana was still conflicted, every time she felt she had a grasp on how bad the situation could get it got a little worse and she had a sneaking suspicion that, even now with Savoy out of the way, things could still get worse. She missed her like crazy and seeing her belongings still scattered around her house made her feel depressed in the worst way but she still hadn't made up her mind about contacting her. So much had already been jeopardized and she was extremely fortunate not to currently be in a prison cell. Her instincts were telling her to let it go for her own good, something inside her knew that getting involved with her again would mean ending up somewhere she couldn't ever get back from and it scared her. She had no proof other than her gut, but she knew it was true. Brittany was a poison she was dying to take.

On a lazy Friday night, Santana sat as she had months before with her phone in her hand trying to decide whether to make the call she knew she shouldn't. She looked at Brittany's number and snapped her phone shut; open, shut, open, shut.

The rhythmic clack of her phone was interrupted by a knock at her door. Surprised that anyone would visit her at midnight, she got up and opened the door not knowing who to expect, but hoping silently that it was Brittany. She opened it and found the only person that ever seemed to appear on her doorstep besides the blonde; Rachel.

"Can I come in?" she asked, her tone was serious and her face was unreadable.

Still a bit thrown, Santana stepped out of the way as Rachel walked in, "So what changed to make you talk to me again?"

She didn't answer at first, she just walked in and took a seat in the living room and waited for Santana. When she sat in the chair opposite her she finally spoke again, "After what happened. When Quinn told me how she got like that, I was still incredibly angry that you broke your promise, and I wanted to prove once and for all that Brittany was a fraud. So for the past week I've been at the city records building selling all my free time to Mercedes so I could get her to request more files for me to investigate. I went through everything in the main one sent to the Lieutenant but I had to do some deeper digging and I found nothing but proof that Brittany is everything she claims to be. Everything about what happened to her and the people involved reeks and there are obvious bribes going from hand to hand and illegal communications…I kept digging and finally I came across something else that linked some things together and changed everything. Brittany was set up and Savoy is a bad man, but that's not all there is to this."

Santana had been listening intently and was startled when Rachel suddenly stood and handed her a small black flash drive, "What is this?"

"Everything you need to know," she stopped clearly thinking hard about something, "I admit I was quite upset with you after what happened but I got over that fairly quickly as I discovered the rest of this. I really stopped talking because I was too busy arguing with myself about what to do with this information. The first option is to turn it in and hope maybe someone can do something about it, provided that the courts don't do what they did with Savoy, which is nothing. Or I could give it to you, as I suspect you have more knowledge about what's been happening than you let on, and let you handle it. The third option, for you at least, is to take what I have here and turn it in but I think you have even less faith in the courts than even I do now."

"Rachel I'm glad you found some proof but you are being really cryptic and weird right now."

She gave a humorless laugh, "I know. I feel like giving you this information is a horrible thing to do to someone you call a friend… I mean I like to think we are friends."

"You suck sometimes, but yeah we're friends. So can you cut me some slack and tell me what's so bad."

"It's all there, what happened in Washington and even phone records regarding Brittany getting shot. I think every inch of it is horrible and I am handing it off to you. I would like to say it's because I trust your judgment as a great cop, and I do, but it's more like I'm doing it because I think I know how you'll handle it," she began to walk towards the door. "All you need to see is in a folder with your name on it," before she left she turned and said, "Tell Brittany if she ever points a gun at Quinn again, for any reason, I will not hesitate to shoot her."

They exchanged a serious glance before Rachel walked across the threshold, closing the door behind her.

Santana looked at the flash drive and then sideways at another one that sat unobtrusively on top of her bookshelf.

The feeling that things were about to go too far intensified, she had no idea what possessed her to steal the Zi drive from the safe house other than the fleeting thought that if something ever happened to Lauren, she could use it to keep Brittany safe. Now looking at what Rachel had given her and the way the other woman had been acting, she had to assume that whatever she was about to see was going to make her take matters into her own hands, hands that had a mini version of the world's most powerful hacking program.

Feeling she was reading way too much into everything, she pulled out her laptop and proceeded to open the file. It was full of documents, newspaper images, photos and videos and the more she looked at, the angrier she got. Not just at what she was seeing but at Rachel for putting her on the fast track down a path she hadn't wanted to take.

* * *

><p>Artie wasn't a man who dreamed, at least not in the literal sense. When he slept, it was always peaceful and quiet, but every once in a while, now for instance, there would be a sound that would penetrate his mind and spark a dream.<p>

In this one he could see a dragon on a mountain top clanging a gong with its talon, it was weird because that was the whole dream and even as the image faded and his eyes opened the sound continued.

The sound was coming from the foot of his bed; it was a gun clanging against the metal frame.

He looked up and saw that the person tapping it casually against his bed was Santana, she had a look that was somehow cruel, calm and pleasant all at once.

"You're awake, good," she said taking a seat on his dresser.

"How did you get in here?"

She smiled at that, "Lauren let me in. This place has automatic locks, cameras on every floor and a spiffy intercom system, all of them got turned off when I showed her what I found."

"And what might that be?" he asked sitting up.

"Some data about you. There are lots of things really. Like I found when your parents died when you were fifteen, they left you a good sum of money and the technological company NoriTech, but it bombed with you at the wheel. You shut it down and put it on the side, joined the CIA and then years later you sell it and NoriTech is back on the map. What's more, it doesn't just show up, it expands by building another one up north, now why is that?"

"I used to own them when I was a teen. I sold the rights. The owner expanded, no big deal."

"Yeah except you sold them to a man called Rusty Tailor, not only is that name silly, well I suppose equally as silly as Artie Abrams, but his initials are R.T. and given how everyone in your circle is at least fifty percent narcissistic, I'm going to go ahead and assume R.T. equals Artie."

"Are you serious? R.T.? That's supposed to be proof of something?"

Santana raised her eyebrows, "Not really, it's just weird that good old Rusty opens both buildings, claiming they will be the home of a revolutionary new program six months before Zizes is stolen… and ends up at NoriTech."

"Listen Santana I don't know who told you this but-"

Her eyes flashed in a way that frightened him, "That's not even why I'm here with my Desert Eagle," she waved her gun at him, "I don't give a shit about your stupid company or your many under the table, highly illegal, doings. I know it was you who called Brittany and told her to walk into that damn stupid trap you and Savoy had set up. I know it was you who informed him when and how Brittany was going to come for him in his hotel and most importantly I know it wasn't Savoy who shot her in Washington. It was you."

He stared back at her looking astonished, "How do you know all that?"

"Interesting, you aren't even going to try and deny it?"

"There is clearly no point. Yes, it was me."

"Why?" she said in a tone that was more like a growl.

He shuffled himself back so he could lean against the backboard of his bed, seeming to be casually resigned to having this conversation even knowing the likely conclusion. In reality, Santana was well aware that his right hand was starting a slow and careful journey towards the edge of his bed.

"It was Zizes obviously. Paul came to me and we discussed what to do about it for months. We were going to have to get Laruen bumped from agent to the most wanted list in order to be allowed access to her tech wing and confiscate her data. However, there is no matching Lauren's technical genius and Tina is one in a million when it comes to her audio and video skills, she and Lauren together are non-replaceable. Kurt wasn't important enough to anyone to be a suitable alleged mastermind, so it left Brittany. She would get all the blame for attempting to break into a top secret bioweapons facility and would be too dead to counter the claims, the others would serve time but their skills would still be available to us."

Santana felt her lip curling, "So you shot her because she was the most expendable?"

"In a nutshell. She was supposed to have died in the attempt and Lauren and the others were supposed to run and we would catch them later. Instead, one of Savoy's men was too much of an idiot to know he wasn't supposed to shoot me and was too bad of a shot to hit Brittany at a distance, so I had to do it."

She was quiet for a while, more to control her temper than anything, "You were her boyfriend for years, didn't you ever care for her?"

"Yes, of course I did. But that time was over, I shot and I missed, but it was still good shooting given that I had just taken a bullet to the spine."

Her teeth were grinding again and she forced herself to stop, she wouldn't let him get to her. She wanted answers and he was only giving them to buy time for his still wandering hand, to make it to whatever weapon he was so carefully reaching for, but it was difficult not to just shoot him outright. "I would suggest you watch what you say," she said darkly. "So your friends saved you and nursed you back to health and you still plotted to kill Brittany?"

"I told her to leave Savoy be. I told her countless times to drop it but she wouldn't, so when she went after him, I got Lauren to tell me the plan and passed it on. Besides the whole bioweapon theft attempt was still on the books and we did still need a scapegoat. The top brass were not going to be happy until someone was turned in, if she got caught trying to murder him we would have been golden."

"But after that she did leave him alone."

"Yes but he was pretty pissed that she had attempted to kill him, so I came up with a plan for him to get her out of his hair. I had him request a police officer from your precinct in the hopes that if she somehow escaped like she is so good at doing, that you would be upset enough by the death of a comrade, you would either turn her in or end her. I used Lauren's codes to disable her tracker and I totally disabled the building's security literally leading her to her prey and locked her in but somehow she wriggled past all of it. I do not understand how she failed with a kill gift wrapped in front of her. She has always just kind of stumbled through life but this was her bumbling at its best."

She cocked the hammer back on her gun, "Don't test me. I will shoot a crippled man in the shoulder just to make myself feel better. Now what I want to know is why you stayed with them after your Washington plan failed."

"Oh," he laughed genuinely, "Because Lauren never told us about splitting the damn thing up, so it was nowhere near as effective when we got it. It was lucky because Savoy was ready to write the whole thing off as a lost cause but I convinced him I could get Lauren to put it back together."

"And you helped your team infiltrate your own building and steal the data back so she would recompile it?"

"Bingo."

"Why bother? Just give it back."

"They aren't as easy to trick as Brittany is. If I just had it, they would have known who was behind it all. Even with NoriTech, I had to do so much planning. Normally the security is insane there but if I got rid of it all, they would be too suspicious and if it was too heavy they wouldn't take the risk, so I scheduled the benefits where security would be the perfect amount for them to go in. That's why we never exposed Brittany to the agents on duty, we needed her to be able to move freely."

Santana had heard about all she had wanted to hear, when she had first understood who was pulling the strings she felt ill. Not because of what happened but because of what she knew she was going to do about it, she understood Rachel's trepidation and only wished her partner knew just how personal this was for her. Rachel had found that Artie was behind the attempt to murder Quinn and had seen the security footage of Artie shooting Brittany. There was no way she could have known this went so much deeper for her than that.

In that moment, Artie interpreted her moment of contemplation as inattentiveness and darted his hand underneath the mattress. Santana watched far longer than she knew was safe; some reckless, proud side of her wanted this, wanted to give him a head start and still crush him. It all happened so slowly it was almost amusing; the look of rushed panic on his face, the budding beads of sweat that almost instantly started running down his face, his clenched teeth, all signs of an effort to get her before she could even know what had happened. It was so satisfying to watch, she didn't react immediately, not when she saw the butt of a sawed off shotgun, not when it was pulled free and swung wildly in his grasp, not even when the barrel was pointed at her.

It was when his eyes found hers and a smile of triumph graced his lips that she pulled the trigger, blowing a hole in his shoulder. With their lifeline cut, the muscles in his arm died and the gun fell from the bed to the floor with a crash. He didn't give her the pleasure of screaming, he merely held his shoulder, clamped his jaw and allowed himself a whining groan as his only outlet of pain. The entire time his eyes stayed trained on her, they held no anger, just steely resignation.

She stood and stared into the face of the man she couldn't comprehend and moved forward, knowing there was no turning back from this.

Santana began to walk slowly to the head of the bed, dragging the barrel of her gun along his legs as she went, "I didn't tell everyone what you did," she said lazily, "You see, what bothers me Artie isn't that you betrayed maybe the only person in the world who never deserved it. Actually I'm a bit glad about that part because it means that I get the girl, the thing that bugs me, is that I can never tell her. It would break her to know what you did, and I mean really break her. So I'm going to have to kill you and keep what a slimy shitbag you are to myself, while she will keep you in her heart as this noble man that she loved. Hell still loves, probably more than me. And you will live on in her untouched and I will guard the memory of your fake self with everything I have because unlike you, I love her. Lauren and the others agreed not to tell her, which is good news for them," she considered him for a moment then lowered her weapon. "Why do any of this at all?" she asked in an offhanded way, as if this was one mystery she couldn't let go.

He gave a quavering smile, "That program can do anything, change bank balances even tip the stock market-" he paused to suppress another scream, sweat pouring from him as he closed his eyes and shook. "It's fame, fortune and prosperity that fits in the palm of your hand and she was using it to pick locks."

She pressed the gun to his temple causing his glasses to sit skewed on his face, he was trembling, with pain or fear she didn't know, either way the response pleased her. With all that had happened, being so close to concluded, she decided to take a moment and use him to say something aloud she could never tell another living soul.

"Since you have answered me so honestly I'll tell you a little something, I have the Zi program, I'm sure you know what that is," the way his eyes widened told her he did, "and I will use it to get rid of Savoy and every single one of his men and absolutely anyone else who even looks like they might be getting close to who she really is. Sure Zizes could hide us but I don't want to take chances."

Not daring to move his head he said, "Zi isn't that kind of program, even Zizes can't kill people."

"Of course it can. It controls money and with money you can get to anyone."

"And how does this make you any better than me?"

"It doesn't. Actually in a lot of ways it makes me worse. You are right, as much as it pains me to admit it, Brittany does sort of just walk through life without a care in the world, and it really would be good enough if people like you didn't try and kill her. She is an angel and I have to become a demon to protect her. I think I realized that on some level a long time ago and tried to avoid it, but it's too late now. She's stuck with me."

"We were a great team once but it was time to move on, I don't regret trying to reach for a dream," he said sadly knowing their conversation had come to an end.

"Good because I don't regret this," she said as she stood back and unloaded every bulled in her gun into his head.

When the last remnants of sound from the gun died she just stood there looking at the mess she had made and knew there was a sadistic smile on her face. She had enjoyed that immensely. Still feeling almost euphoric about putting an end to him, she walked into the bathroom and washed the pieces of Artie off of her. After she was able to make herself appear not to have unloaded seven rounds into a man's head she walked out of the building, her grin widening as a wrecking ball was being transported to his apartment.

Artie's apartment had been built only a year prior, yet the city somehow had a demolition order for that very day. Coincidentally every other occupant of the complex had all been bought out of their homes, meaning the only occupied room was Artie's and since he was dead it really didn't matter. Of course this had nothing to do with Santana, she had promised Lauren she would take him somewhere secluded, rough him up a bit, and leave him alive and alone to fend for himself without the help of Lauren or her divine program. This occurrence was completely by accident...

* * *

><p>Santana wobbled slightly as she expertly balanced several plates in her hands and on her arms to the table of waiting guests who all were already drinking. She had invited Sam, Puck, Finn, Mike, Rachel and even Quinn and Mercedes at Rachel's insistence. Matt had even come in from out of town and was even now laughing with Rachel over their shared experiences in being her partner.<p>

It was a get together they would do every once in a while to break the monotony of always hanging out at Femme or, for those in relationships, to just hang out with the usual suspects, though this was Rachel's first one and the only one that had included Santana and Quinn at the same time.

She offered the plates to the others, who grabbed them like they had never eaten before. Since there was only one left after that barrage, she took her plate and sat in the only available seat next to Quinn. There was another spot next to Mercedes, but she wasn't ready for that brand of hostility at the moment. Quinn was a much easier sparring partner.

"You do know there is another open seat right?" Quinn said the moment Santana sat down.

"Yes because this is my house all of these seats are open to me, if you want one that's open to you go hop in your car. While you're in there you can drive yourself home too," she said smoothly before she tucked into her food.

"Quinn," Rachel warned from the other side of the two women, noting their hostility even in the midst of her conversation.

"We were just talking about her nice chairs, hon," she said coolly giving Santana a withering look.

Matt snorted, "Hon? Really?"

"Oh these two are dating now," Puck offered to his confused friend.

"Say what? Man I left too soon."

"Don't worry we only found out last week cause Rachel is a loud one."

Rachel's face went brick red, "Puck!"

Santana had to laugh, it had been rather amusing for a medium sized crowd of people to hear what was going on in the Sergeant's office only to see Rachel emerge a few minutes later trying to play it off. The whole precinct knew about it before anyone finished their first cup of coffee. Santana had spent the day reciting the 'No never at work' line she had been fed. Though in classic Rachel fashion, she decided to hold her head up and own it, so she went from endlessly embarrassed to intense personal pride… and back to embarrassed when reminded that about twenty people heard her reach climax.

"The real point here is, this one has a mystery girl she's all serious about," he said pointing to Santana.

Matt choked on his food a little, "This Santana?"

"Nah man, Carlos Santana."

"I'm right here," she grumbled.

"I have a girlfriend too," Sam said raising his hand proudly.

Mercedes sighed heavily, "Damn."

"Dude nobody cares. We are talking about chick plus chick," Puck said as if he was explaining why breathing was a necessary function.

"I care man, that's really cool, what's she like?" Finn asked.

"No! I don't want to switch to Sam's imaginary binary girlfriend. We are grilling Santana on her mystery woman!" Puck roared dramatically.

"Are you sure Sam isn't the only one with a fake girlfriend?" Mike teased and immediately apologized to Sam who looked miserable.

"She isn't fake, I've met her," Rachel said.

"Matt you really missed out because being her partner got way better," Puck whispered loud enough for everyone to hear, "Rachel got to not only see her super hot girlfriend, she also got to see the claw marks Santana was sporting from fooling around."

"Seriously? That you remember but when I tell you to bring over buns for hotdogs, suddenly your brain is mush!" Santana snapped.

Finn rubbed his forehead, "Do we not have any other topics?"

Santana was going to suggest switching to Quinn's ever questionable choice in partners when her phone buzzed with a text message. She pulled it out and read the message; **Good Luck –Private**

Standing immediately, she moved quickly to the front door and pulled it open to see Brittany standing at the end of her driveway with a small suitcase, watching a car pull away. She pulled the door closed and as she hoped, the sound got her attention. With her t-shit and bleached jeans she looked like an abandoned hitchhiker, her expression both excited and afraid as she picked up her suitcase and approached almost cautiously.

"I'm really sorry to just show up like this and I know you're probably still mad but Lauren just shoved me out here with my stuff."

"You were really going to leave New York?"

She shook her head, "I found an apartment in the city. I was going to wait for you to call me, or until I couldn't stand not seeing you anymore."

"Good 'cause I told Lauren to bring you here," she said smiling.

"But today was our last day together, the mission is over. For some reason Lauren didn't rent the apartment I told her I wanted and that means after I leave here I don't have anywhere to stay."

Santana walked up to her and held her face gently, "I know, I asked her to bring you to me because I want you to stay," she said.

The smile she loved so much spread across Brittany's face and she was pulled into a backbreaking hug, "I'm so glad you forgave me because I'm really tired of people being mad at me."

Santana laughed, "Come on in we're having chips, hotdogs with no buns, chili with soda and or beer. Oh and tofu burgers because Rachel is gross."

"Is that okay? For your friends to see me?" she asked backing up a little.

Santana grabbed her hand and pulled her inside, "You're going to be living with me from now on, so it better be."

"But... wont they remember me from Femme?"

She thought about that for a moment, "If they do I'll take care of it," she said lightly.

The table of slightly drunk people fell silent as the blonde followed Santana into the dining room and sat next to her and Mercedes.

"Hi," she said brightly, "I'm Brittany." Santana gave her an odd look and she worried she had said something wrong, but then she shook her head clearly moving on.

"This is my non-imaginary girlfriend."

"People can have imaginary girlfriends?" she asked.

"He does," Puck said pointing to Sam.

"Oh," Brittany said interestedly, "What does she pretend to be like?"

Sam was about to try and get to the bottom of that inquiry but Santana cut him off, "Alright so back to the topic of Berry's nooner."

"Santana!" Rachel flared.

Brittany got along amazingly well with everyone, even Mercedes who rarely warmed up to anyone on the first meeting, and Rachel who had been rather cold at first but was won over by her relentless warmth and friendliness. The night wore on and as the late hours of the night came after drinking games, talking/arguing, and impromptu karaoke, the last of Santana's visitors were shuffling out the door. Mike and Puck left in a cab, it was how they had arrived because they had correctly predicted they would be too drunk to drive home. Quinn headed straight for her car while Rachel lingered at the door with Santana.

"You took care of it right?" she said, her voice was quiet.

"And then some, Quinn'll be fine," Santana replied.

"I'm sorry I put you in that position," she said apologetically.

"I think I would have put myself there one way or the other."

"It was just bad of me not to handle it myself."

"Don't think about it too much."

She started towards the car and then stopped turning to look imploringly at Santana, "I'm just worried about what doing what I did makes me."

"It makes you a little more like me," she replied with a sad smile.

Rachel looked back at her not knowing how to take that, but was called back to reality when Quinn urged her to hurry. She waved briefly and left more unsure of herself than ever.

Santana made her way to the bedroom where Brittany was sitting, looking about as downbeat as Rachel just had.

"What's the matter?" she asked sitting next to her.

"We all said goodbye today… but Lauren said Artie had already gone into hiding so I didn't even get to say goodbye to him."

She had been ready for this, but it still made her teeth grind, "I'm sure he's fine."

"I don't know San. I went to his apartment to try and find him but his building was missing."

"Maybe he took it with him? It was nice."

"That's true," she said thoughtfully.

"So now that I've got you alone I have to know; why didn't you change your name? Lauren did explain to you what hiding was all about right."

"She did but I told her that if she couldn't protect me and let me keep my real name then Zizes wasn't a very good program."

A half smile crept over Santana's face, "Brittany did you manipulate her into letting you keep it?"

"It was the only way, she was going to name me Gabriella Holt," she said with a sour face.

"I get liking your own name, but why not just change it for safety?"

She turned to Santana with her bright eyes, "I don't want you calling someone else's name when you want me."

Santana barked a laugh, "Are you serious?" she said yanking Brittany onto the bed beneath her, "That is so ridiculous and adorable."

She looked down at the woman she loved, at the woman she was willing to live in the darkness of immorality for. Brittany was now the only part of her that was good and she would keep it that way, no matter how many people she had to get rid of to do it. Lauren had made everyone split up and run to different corners of the earth, running from the people who they were all too noble to just be rid of. Santana had lost all such nobility after Artie, Savoy had been in a car crash after an 18 wheeler pushed his Lincoln off a narrow bridge. Already there were thirteen missing agents and a few extended family members who decided to dig too deep. A user friendly atom bomb indeed. Santana found it almost comical how rarely she had to do more than transfer funds to get anything done, when Zi was capable of so much more. It was an amazing power to wield and it made her feel almost god-like, until Brittany mentioned Artie.

Behind her bright blue eyes he lurked as he always would, taunting her as the one thing she wanted to get rid of the most and couldn't. It was quite ironic really. He was there as a glaring reminder of what she had become. She knew it would be difficult at times to have to share Brittany with such an unrealistic memory of a man she never really knew but she would because it was what had to be done. It didn't stop her from wanting to be the one to push him from her memory, to make him such a distant thing, she would hardly ever think of him.

"Where are you?" Brittany asked snapping Santana out of her thoughts.

"I'm right here."

"No, just now you were really far away."

Santana smiled and kissed her, "I promise. I'm always going to be right here."

The End

* * *

><p>But it's not over, more to this tale exists.<p>

Leave a review if you feel so inclined. I would be very grateful.


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